Akulivik debates changes to its alcohol rules
After recent public meeting, Mayor Larry Hubert is looking into the good and the bad of opening alcohol sales in the dry community
Akulivik’s community members are considering allowing the sale of alcohol in their community. Mayor Larry Hubert is looking into how this can be made possible, and if it should happen. (File photo)
To sell alcohol or not — that’s the question being debated in Akulivik now, where the mayor says residents feel current rules aren’t working.
The village hosted a public meeting Jan. 28 to hear opinions on whether to change its status, which currently allows people to order and possess limited amounts of alcohol but doesn’t allow alcohol to actually be sold in town.
Among Nunavik’s villages, currently only Puvirnituq, Kuujjuaraapik and Kuujjuaq allow alcohol sales within their boundaries.
“The bylaw does not work the way the bylaw is supposed to,” said Akulivik Mayor Larry Hubert.
He said that when he was campaigning for mayor last year, people complained the bylaw was not preventing alcohol from entering the community illegally.
Last week’s public meeting was held “to get some input from the community, what they would like to see, and how the bylaw is not working,” Hubert said.
In addition to residents, also at the meeting were representatives of the Qekeirriaq landholding corporation, the Co-op store and the Northern Store who all expressed interest as well as concerns about possibly being allowed to start selling beer and wine in Akulivik.
“Most people that came to the meeting want to have the bylaw amended to sell [alcohol] locally through the Co-op or the landholding,” Hubert said.
Akulivik’s bylaw, adopted in 2019 limits people in the community to buying or ordering no more than 24 cans of beer, four litres of wine and two 12-ounce bottles of liquor in total over a two-week period. Those purchases get shipped in through Canada Post.
Penalties for violations range from confiscation to $300 fines or being disqualified from buying alcohol for one year.
“We are creating bootlegging with this bylaw,” said Hubert, adding that has become a “big concern in the village.”
He said the fact the bylaw isn’t working is not a “news flash” to people.
However, he’s not sure if it’s better to be a dry town and risk bootlegging or to allow alcohol sales in Akulivik.
“That is why I want everybody’s input,” Hubert said, adding that amending the bylaw would take time. And if enough community members decide they want change, a referendum will have to held.
“Prohibition doesn’t work, it hasn’t worked anywhere,” he said. “If anything, it makes it worse because we create binge drinking.”
He added: “It is either feast or famine.”
Hubert plans to meet with all organizations in Akulivik in the coming weeks.
At a Nunavik mayors’ meeting in March, he wants to talk with mayors from communities that allow alcohol sales to hear their experiences.
“Are we going out of the frying pan into the fire?” he asked.
Work will continue over the next few months.
“We’re going to go slowly and make sure everything is properly done legally and to help, not to create a worse situation.”
Join the 21st century . Mind you , your going to have drunks walking around everywhere like the big city of kuujjuaq.
It’s not a “dry” community if it currently allows people to order and possess limited amounts of alcohol. It’s a restricted community.
Those dry town people end up going crazy in towns that serve alcohol and cause problems. And it’s a matter of time before meth and crack fill your streets with zombies 🤑 John Molson is a billionaire not a bootlegger
People drink not because alcohol (and cheap ass beer) is tasty to the mouth – but it does quench the broken souls. Don’t you have any cue, people, on how to bring well-being into communities?