GN centralizes special occasion liquor permits

Obtaining a special occasion liquor permit will now take more time and paperwork in Cambridge Bay and throughout Nunavut, councillors at Cambridge Bay’s Feb. 21 municipal meeting learned.

Nunavut’s liquor management has set up a central access point where all applications for special occasion permits will be processed, according to a Feb. 16 letter from the Government of Nunavut’s liquor enforcement and inspection office to the hamlet of Cambridge Bay.

The letter notes that all requests for special permits will now be funneled through Iqaluit in an effort to “streamline the application and issuing process” for special occasion permits.

These will now go through the office of the chief inspector in Iqaluit and require at least seven days to process. Every application will have to be accompanied by a fire marshall’s special occupancy loads, a server training course, and an approved liquor order.

A restricted community must also have approval from its alcohol education committee and the hamlet’s approval to apply for a special permit.

And the permits won’t be handed out for free. An application for an event with up to 50 participants will cost $50, for 51 to 150, $100, with increasing amounts charged for a greater numbers of participants.