Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 25/98) - You want to stay home on Saturday night, invite a few friends over, watch the hockey game and have a beer or two.

In Yellowknife, Iqaluit, Norman Wells and Inuvik getting a hold of a cool one is as easy as walking to the liquor store and hauling one out of the cooler.

Yet in many other communities, finding something to drink requires a little more thought and effort.

"We have to fly in beer from Norman Wells," said Richard Basha, a consultant for hotel restaurants based in Fort Good Hope.

"You have to transfer money to the Northern Store in Norman Wells, send a fax with it. The lady at the liquor store in Norman Wells will pick it up, check the name. It's a rationing system -- one bottle and one case per week -- and they just check it off and send it in the next two days through North-Wright Air."

The cost of 24 beer with all the shipping and handling charges works out to about $3 a beer or $72 a flat.

In Yellowknife, a flat of beer costs about $40. A 40-ounce bottle of Bacardi white rum is about the same price.

"It's outrageous," said Basha.

Basha said he orders occasionally through the Northern Store and admits that the service is great.

"Of course it is. They're making a fortune off of us."

In Fort Good Hope one 40-ounce bottle of liquor and 24 beer costs $100, plus there's a $15 transfer fee and $10 service charge.

"You're talking $125 for a bottle and a flat. I'm in the wrong business," said Basha.

In Norman Wells there is a liquor store. In Fort McPherson spirits can be bought down the highway from Inuvik's liquor store and in Aklavik alcohol can be picked up in winter by driving the ice road to Inuvik. In summer it has to be flown in.

In Rankin Inlet, residents who enjoy a sociable drink have a tough time getting alcohol as well.

"Since I moved here it's been really hard to do that (order liquor)," said Jimi Onalik, a Kivalliq Inuit Association employee.

To purchase alcohol in Rankin Inlet rooms can be booked at the local hotel and alcohol ordered to the room.

Or customer can choose to get their stock shipped to the community from the Yellowknife Liquor Store via the airlines.

"They have to do a bank draft through the bank and order booze through the liquor store so that way the liquor store is protected with their cash," said Jack Hedley, cargo agent for M&T Enterprises, which manages cargo orders for both Canadian North and NWT Air.

"Once their orders are done they charge $10 or $15 for delivery to the airport and their freight charges vary on how much actual booze they have."

The minimum for any freight order is $27.

"A flat of beer would probably cost you about $75 landed here," said Hedley.

Even though the costs are high, there's a steady flow of alcohol to Rankin Inlet, with a number of transfers to Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet, he added.

The Co-op in Grise Fiord does its share of bank transfers and alcohol orders for residents.

For each order, the co-op charges a transfer fee on all transactions.

"It depends on how much money you're transferring," she said. "At $100 or something I think it's five dollars and if it's over $100 there's an extra $10 or something like that."

Customers who order booze must pay a handling fee tacked on by the liquor store and cargo fees charged by the airlines.

One Kugluktuk resident who asked not want to be identified said the process for ordering alcohol is long and hard.

"When I came here I had to fax my driver's licence and a picture saying who I was and put it into Yellowknife records. Then from that point on I would call them and say this is what I'd like and then they'd give me a price, including, the cab fee, $15 delivery charge, then I'd go to the Northern or the co-op do a money transfer and pay the extra $15 or $20 with the money transfer," he said.

"So now I'm already paying $30 without even ordering anything and then once it's shipped up here I have to pay whatever freight it cost on top of it."

This is not something you want to do every week, he added.