Taloyoak says no to alcohol education committee

57 per cent of voters in Taloyoak rejected the idea of creating an alcohol education committee Oct. 6 which would oversee alcohol orders to the Kitikmeot community. (PHOTO COURTESY OF QINIQ.COM)

Residents of Taloyoak voted Oct.6 to reject the creation of a local alcohol education committee to oversee liquor orders made within the Kitikmeot community.

More than half of voters — 57 per cent — voted to keep an unrestricted system, where only the territory’s general liquor laws apply.

Under Taloyaok’s unrestricted system, any resident of legal drinking age may order alcohol from outside the community.

That means Taloyoak residents may order freely from either of Nunavut’s two liquor warehouses, located in Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit.

Residents who bring in liquor from outside Nunavut without an import permit are restricted to quantities no greater than three litres of spirits, nine liters of wine or 26 litres of beer.

To import larger quantities from outside Nunavut, residents must get permits.

Taloyoak remains one of only five Nunavut communities to operate this way, along with Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet and Grise Fiord.

To trigger a plebiscite, at least 20 permanent residents of Taloyoak have had to sign and file a petition to the Nunavut Liquor Commission.

If Taloyoak had voted in favour of the new restrictions, individuals would have to apply to a alcohol education committee for approval to bring liquor into the community. The committee would have the authority to place restrictions on the purchase, or even refuse applications.

But only 43 per cent of Taloyoak’s voters cast ballots in favour of such a committee.

Overall, 61 per cent of Taloyoak’s 400 eligible voters cast ballots in the plebiscite, Elections Nunavut said in an Oct. 6 release.

The Kitikmeot community is the fourth in the territory this year to host a plebiscite on alcohol; Arviat, Chesterfield Inlet and Kugluktuk all gauged local interest in loosening alcohol restrictions last February.

In the end, all three voted to keep local restrictions on alcohol imports.

The majority of Nunavut communities — 14 — operate with alcohol education committees, while alcohol is prohibited in six other communities.

Nunavut’s largest community, Iqaluit, will take the discussion a step further Oct. 7 when the Government of Nunavut hosts a consultation on the prospect of opening a beer and wine store in the capital.

Changes to Nunavut’s Liquor Act, passed in 2013, allow the possibility of opening a beer and wine store as a pilot project in one of the territory’s non-prohibited communities.

Iqaluit has been the first and only community to express interest so far.

“We believe there are two big advantages to opening a store,” Chris D’Arcy, Nunavut’s deputy minister of finance said last month.

“Reducing bootlegging” is the first, he said, “but more importantly, offering an alternative to having spirits — which we believe will reduce the harm by introducing other choices in beverage alcohol.”

The GN will host a public consultation on the proposal tonight, Oct. 7, in the Baffin Room at the Frobisher Inn, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.