Political feud continues over Nunavut beer and wine store

Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Paul Okalik says Nunavut jails are full of people with alcohol addictions: “How are we going to resolve this issue?” (FILE PHOTO)

Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Paul Okalik slammed finance minister Keith Peterson Feb. 22 over alleged missteps leading to the opening of an Iqaluit beer and wine store, after a budget address by Peterson in the legislature that lauded the store as “another step in harm reduction.”

“I wanted to state my concern and I would like to see something more concrete or improved work done in the future,” Okalik said during a written response to Peterson’s budget address.

“As representatives, if we’re just going to go ahead and plan to open a liquor outlet, let’s encourage and provide a treatment centre and support for those people who are experiencing trouble.”

Peterson announced during the unveiling of Nunavut’s 2016-17 fiscal year budget that government efforts deterring criminal activity will “take on extra significance this year with the opening of a beer and wine store in Iqaluit.”

“Freer access to beer and wine is a way to disrupt bootleggers, and to reduce the harm caused by binge-drinking hard liquor,” Peterson said, while not elaborating on a specific timeline for the store’s opening.

Okalik, echoing sentiments that fueled his resignation from cabinet last year over the project, continued the critique of his former government colleagues for soldiering on with the store without solid plans for dealing with potential alcohol abuse.

“For those of us who have abused substances, the opening of the liquor outlet is not going to eradicate bootlegging,” he said, citing concerns raised by local elders.

“Our correctional facilities are filled to capacity because these inmates are there because of alcohol problems. How are we going to resolve this issue?”

Okalik read statements made by Peterson years earlier during the initial stages of the store’s planning, when the minister committed to a liquor task force on the issue that would consult Iqalungmiut, along with nearby communities that could also be affected.

“I’m still waiting for consultation work, it seems like we’re not following through with that,” he said.

The Government of Nunavut held local consultations in 2014, and in the following year held a city-wide plebiscite that reported overwhelming support for a beer and wine store.

Prior to that, a Nunavut Liquor Act Review Task Force spent 27 months compiling data and holding consultations across Nunavut, releasing a 195-page final report in 2012 which actually suggested that a beer and wine store could be part of the government’s “harm reduction” plan.

Okalik delivered his response after the legislature’s question period had already ended so his statements did not garner an immediate reaction from Peterson.

But it’s not the first time the two politicians have sparred over Nunavut’s soon-to-open beer and wine store.

Last summer, Peterson jabbed at Okalik’s requests for a new treatment facility in Iqaluit—the last facility closed in Apex in 1998—referring to old promises Okalik made as Nunavut’s premier from 1999 until 2008.

“[Okalik] himself was at a conference in Montreal in September 2002, where he promised a limited detox centre be opened, so that’s never happened,” Peterson said during a June 2016 exchange.

But Okalik is not alone in his calls for a treatment centre.

Baffin mayors—meeting in Iqaluit for a three-day forum last year—passed a resolution demanding that an addiction treatment and wellness centre be established prior to a beer and wine outlet opening in the territory.

Earlier this month, Nunavut Justice Paul Bychok called alcohol abuse in Nunavut a “crisis” that’s “tearing apart out society…tearing apart our families,” during the sentencing of Jamie Mikijuk, who incited a 41-hour armed standoff with the RCMP in Iqaluit’s Happy Valley neighborhood in 2015 while strung out on drugs and alcohol.

Peterson said in his budget address that the GN is increasing funding this year for harm-reducing strategies, as well as enacting an awareness campaign to “encourage healthy and informed choices.”

While Okalik pulled no punches in his criticism over the handling of the beer and wine store, he credited his colleagues for increased investment in education and special needs care.

“I encourage them to work on that,” he said.

Okalik has also acknowledged that his own constituents want the beer and wine store; they voted 77 per cent in favour of it during the 2015 plebiscite.

“I resigned as a matter of principle,” he told Nunatsiaq News following his resignation in 2016.

“I’m not opposed to a liquor store per se. But we need to have supports in place to prevent so much abuse of alcohol [because] we’re opening the door further.”