Taloyoak plans another vote on liquor

Charlie Lyall, mayor of Taloyoak, says his community will hold another liquor plebiscite as soon as possible. (FILE PHOTO)

Taloyoak intends to hold another liquor plebiscite, Charlie Lyall, the community’s mayor, said this week.

”We are holding a plebiscite,” Lyall said. “It’s just a matter of when, taking into account all the preparations that have to be made.”

A motion to hold a liquor plebiscite in the community of about 800 people was made after elders arrived at a hamlet council meeting Aug. 10 to talk about the ravages caused by alcohol in the community and the high social cost of bootlegging.

Before the move to hold another plebiscite in Taloyoak goes ahead, the hamlet must receive a petition signed by at least 20 residents who support the initiative.

Taloyoak last held a liquor plebiscite on March 10, 2008, which means by law, another plebiscite can’t be held until three years after that date, which means some time after March 10, 2011.

In the 2008 vote, more than 60 per cent people in Taloyoak voted against establishing an alcohol education committee, which would have had the power to approve or refuse all liquor orders coming into the community.

“Who knows what they will say this time,” Lyall said.

As it stands now, there are no restrictions at all on the amount of alcohol coming in to Taloyoak, and residents may order from within Nunavut— if they want to pay the high freight costs from Rankin Inlet or Iqaluit— or get their order more quickly and directly from Yellowknife with a permit.

Most crime in Taloyoak is linked to intoxication— and this has led to many suggesting that new controls on liquor could help, Lyall said.

“You get a load of booze in and it’s a bad weekend and it crops up,” he said. “It’s always the same: most of our offences are liquor-related. That’s common knowledge. It’s everywhere.”

Over the past 10 years, the number and severity of criminal offences has gone up in Taloyoak.

According to Statistics Canada’s crime data statistics for Nunavut, the number of police-reported criminal code incidents, excluding traffic incidents, rose from 67 in 1998 to 166 in 2008. Violent crimes doubled from 26 in 1998 to 54 in 2008.

But Lyall isn’t sure that Taloyoak voting to form an alcohol education committee or go dry holds the entire answer to solving social problems.

“If we chose to go dry, bootleggers will get richer and the problem will still exist,” he said.

But tackling booze could help limit the impact of vandalism in the community where broken windows and other damage cost thousands of dollars.

It’s part of the answer to improving social conditions in Taloyoak, Lyall said — but not the whole answer.

“Whoever has the magic solution should patent it and get rich,” he said.