Work to begin on Rankin Inlet’s beer and wine store this summer
Construction on retail outlet has faced COVID-19-related delays, GN says
The new retail beer and wine store will be built within Rankin Inlet’s current liquor warehouse, attached to the Siniktarvik Hotel. (File photo by Sarah Rogers)
Construction is set to start this summer on a beer and wine store in Rankin Inlet, the Nunavut Liquor and Cannabis Commission says.
The retail outlet will be built within Rankin Inlet’s current liquor warehouse, attached to the Siniktarvik Hotel.
In May 2017, the Kivalliq community voted in favour of opening a retail beer and wine store.
The store was originally set to open in 2020 but the Nunavut Liquor and Cannabis Commission says it has run into some delays getting the storefront renovated due to COVID-19 restrictions and the hamlet’s permitting process.
“Construction on the Rankin Inlet store is starting soon and is expected to be completed some time in fall this year,” said Weichien Chan, a spokesperson for the Government of Nunavut’s department of Finance, in a June 21 email to Nunatsiaq News.
Rankin Inlet’s beer and wine store will be the second in the territory. A retail outlet in Iqaluit opened in 2017 as a pilot project and now remains open on a permanent basis.
The liquor commission has also received a request to open a beer and wine store in Cambridge Bay, Chan said, though work has yet to begin on that outlet.
A beer and wine store will change the availability of alcohol in Rankin Inlet, which can currently be purchased with a permit through the GN and from a retailer outside the territory. Residents in the Kivalliq community can also purchase alcohol through licensed clubs.
Housing Canceled in Taloyoak but Beer & Wine in Rankin……. What is wrong with the GN! Of all the priorities when it came to go and no go projects this made the go list? We lack leaders who can prioritize in this Territory….. very sad.
What is happening on Taloyoak is sad and more than likely rooted in GN dysfunction than covid itself, but that has no relationship at all to what is happening in Rankin.
The two issues are not related at all.
Called cash cow. It brings in revenue for Gov’t – even liquor stores at southern Cda didn’t close their own beer/liquor/wine stores.
Guess rental payments doesn’t bring in enough to make housing priority.