Western Nunavut social club sells legal booze, but faces criticism

You buy these drink tokens at the Ikaluktutiak Elks Lodge in Cambridge Bay to exchange them for drinks at the bar. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

By the entrance to the Ikaluktutiak Elks lodge, you can still see where thieves cut through a wall to gain access to the premises last spring. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

The Elks Lodge is located at 2 Kopannoak St. in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — It’s Friday night in Cambridge Bay, and at 7 p.m, inside the cozy Ikaluktutiak Elks Lodge, groups of people, a mixed Inuit and non-Inuit crowd of all ages, sit around narrow tables, drinking beer, talking and watching television while a couple play darts.

Decorations inside the windowless lounge include dart boards, a huge flat screen television, the Nunavut and Elks flags, the Elks charter, brass-engraved mottos bearing the non-profit Elks vow to be “the most progressive family-focused organization,” and a rack of elk antlers.

An Elks member at the entrance who signs people in watches a Blue Jays game on a smaller television. He also sells red, black and white tokens that can be exchanged for drinks at the bar.

Outside, on the semi-enclosed a porch, a couple of elders, dressed in parkas against the -12 C temperatures, smoke cigarettes.

Nothing rowdy on this quiet evening, and no one’s drunk — but mention the Elks, now in its 15th year in Cambridge Bay, and you get some strong reactions.

The Elks’ five executive members, its “exalted rulers” and “leading and loyal knights,” are not always popular figures in town and many view them with suspicion.

That’s despite the money the Elks donate to local events, such as Christmas games or the Omingmak Frolics, and the free pancake breakfasts that members sometimes prepare for the community.

The Elks return about $60,000 to Cambridge Bay every year, a good chunk of the non-profit organization’s $438,000 annual budget, of which, among other expenses, $174,000 is earmarked for buying stock, while $12,000 goes to insurance and $36,000 to heat.

But Elks critics allege the organization’s volunteer events are just for show, and they allege that its social evenings cover bootlegging activities and that its premises are used by some Elks members for private gatherings outside normal Friday and Tuesday hours.

“It’s a disgrace. You don’t want to be involved in it because someday something will happen and fingers will start pointing,” one man told Nunatsiaq News, saying he’s afraid to speak publicly because “then you don’t get to go to the Elks”— the only place in this town of nearly 2,000 people where you can legally buy beer, wine or hard liquor.

Critics complain too many people huddle to smoke on the porch outside the door of the Elks while waiting to get signed in — and that, once inside, there’s little control over how much alcohol they drink, what they drink or who drinks.

Friday night volunteer-cooked suppers, long a tradition, are no longer the norm, they say, and, without food, people tend to drink more.

And, after the Victoria Island Dart League’s Tuesday night dart nights, “90 per cent don’t go to work the next day.”

“Is it a drinking tournament or a darts game? That’s what I want to know,” a disgruntled resident said.

There’s no question about this: alcohol remains a “polarizing issue” in Cambridge Bay, says Jim McEachern, who has served as the “Exalted Ruler” of the Elks for the past two and a half years.

The Ikaluktutiak Elks Lodge remains a target — so much so, that it was broken into last spring during a blizzard.

In this well-thought-out, early-morning robbery, thieves drilled through a wall to get into the building. Once inside, they rifled through the Elks’ stock, made a mess, got away with a lot of booze and caused $40,000 of damage and repairs that the Elks is still struggling to recoup through occasional Saturday afternoon events.

Despite the repair job, the hole made during the break-in is still clearly visible beside the front door.

McEachern says many residents don’t understand the clubhouse is volunteer-run — by only 108 volunteers, whose numbers are limited by the size of the building.

Every time the clubhouse opens, at least four volunteers are needed to check in members and their guests (only two at a time,) serve drinks, and make sure everything runs smoothly.

To ensure that, there are also lots of “house guidelines,” which spell out when you can order a drink, how many you can order at one time, and other rules, like one which says that when a member leaves for the events, the signed-in member guests have to go, too.

The Elks are also trying to clamp down on over-serving, McEachern told Nunatsiaq News. That’s why no straight hard liquor is served as a shot, and if you’re cut off from bar service due to over-drinking, you must leave and, if you’re a member, you may be expelled.

As for liquor infractions — you can’t leave the premises carrying any beer cans or liquor bottles because that’s all monitored by inventory control.

And, when the Elks Lodge is open, the local liquor inspector often drops by, McEachern said.

If people have complaints about the Elks, McEachern said they should write letters to the Elks at ikaluktutiakelks@qiniq.ca.

Some critics are likely people who can’t come to the Elks anymore because they’re on its blacklist or they aren’t members because they don’t want to pay the $105 year in dues and do the required volunteer work, he suggested.

For the Elks to have a larger pool of volunteers would mean enlarging the premises and employing a paid staff, as is the case in Yellowknife to the south.

With more people coming into Cambridge Bay for the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, set to open in 2017, that expansion could be an option — but there are still people in the community who would prefer not to see any booze at all in town.

Right now, with a permit, you can order in or bring in as much alcohol as you wish into Cambridge Bay. Some in town pushed for a 2011 liquor plebiscite to see tighter controls over the flow of alcohol, but the vote never took place.

The Ikaluktutiak Elks Lodge operates legally as a licenced club in Nunavut: in 2011 when the Nunavut Liquor Commission board visited Cambridge Bay for a hearing on its liquor license, the board said it was “impressed with the fact that the Elks were well-organized in preparing and submitting their application,” and “particularly in the fact that they have already ensured that a number of their members have received server training.”