Some suggestions for fighting Nunavut’s bootleggers

Given the multiplicity of loopholes that reside within Nunavut’s antiquated liquor law, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that somebody has finally found a way to run an unlicenced booze can in Nunavut’s capital (Nunatsiaq News, April 16, 1999).

The only real surprise is that it took so long.

There are many inadequate statutes inherited from the Northwest Territories that Nunavut legislators will want to amend. The Nunavut Liquor Act ought to be at the top of their list.

Here are a few suggestions for how our new government can combat bootlegging in Iqaluit, and the rest of Nunavut.

Amend the Nunavut Liquor Act to create stiffer fines for bootleggers and proprietors of illegal or unlicenced bars.
Right now the maximum fine for illegally selling liquor is only $250. In some communities that’s less than the street price of a single bottle of bootleg booze.

The Nunavut legislative assembly should amend the liquor act so that the maximum fine for those convicted of such offences lies at least within the $2,000 to $5,000 range. At the same time, the maximum penalty for failure to pay should be raised to between one and two years in prison. The law should also give judges the option of sending repeat offenders to jail in addition to fining them.

Re-open the Iqaluit liquor store to retail sales
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The Iqaluit liquor store has been closed for retail sales in Iqaluit since 1976. It’s continued closure, however, no longer appears to serve any useful purpose.

In 1970s, many Iqaluit residents — for good reason — demanded that the Iqaluit liquor store be closed for local retail sales on the grounds that too many people were using it to supply spontaneous binge drinking parties that were wreaking havoc in the community. Today, many Iqaluit residents are still doing the same thing — they just buy their liquor from bootleggers instead of the liquor store.

Alcohol abuse in Iqaluit is as much of a disgrace now as it was in the 1970s. It’s hard to imagine that re-opening the liquor store could make this situation any worse than it already is. At the same time, it would deprive local criminals of an important source of illegal income.

Coupled with harsher penalties for bootleggers, re-opening the Iqaluit liquor store could reduce the flow of bootleg liquor in Iqaluit to a trickle.

Use revenues obtained from liquor sales to help pay for alcohol and drug treatment services.
Treatment and counselling services for alcoholics and drug addicts in Nunavut are pitifully inadequate. Counsellors and treatment workers have always been undervalued and underpaid. The only treatment centre in all of Nunavut has been closed for months, and was recently used as a hotel for journalists visiting Iqaluit during the April 1 celebrations.

The Nunavut government should therefore consider imposing a surtax on retail and wholesale liquor sales to offset the cost of providing treatment and counselling for alcoholics and drug addicts.

Alcohol may be a legal substance, and those who want to consume alcohol certainly have a right to buy it. But there’s no reason why the Nunavut government should sell it cheaply — not while so many residents are using it to destroy themselves and their families. JB