Booze coming back to Behchoko
But liquor is still illegal in community until the law is changed in 2017
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Monday, December 19, 2016
BEHCHOKO/RAE-EDZO
Behchoko residents voted to lift the community's alcohol ban on Dec. 12. The vote was 346 in favour of removing restrictions and 95 against.
The ban had been in place since April 2009.
But some residents say making alcohol illegal did little to combat crime.
"The only thing I think it did is have a high court docket just due to the prohibition," Chief Clifford Daniels said.
Mable Bohnet agreed. Now a councillor with Behchoko's community government, Bohnet spoke out about the impact the ban was having shortly after it was implemented seven years ago.
"Drugs, alcohol smuggling, and a lot of ppl were getting caught with possession (of alcohol)," she said.
In an e-mail to News/North, RCMP stated that alcohol related incidents made up 61 per cent of charges in Behchoko from 2009 to present.
The ban was implemented on June 15, 2009 and within a month, 200 of the 298 calls for service in Behchoko were related to alcohol, RCMP told News/North at the time.
Some of the calls were due to the fact that residents were not aware the ban was in effect. The year before the ban, there were 279 calls for service between June and July, 124 of which were alcohol related.
The following year in 2010, police told News/North Behchoko RCMP responded to a total of 211 calls in February 2010, a 20-per-cent increase from February 2009.
But by September 2010, numbers had fallen.
There were 35 liquor act calls in September 2010 compared to 62 in September 2009.
At the time, Inuvik-based Staff Sgt. Bill Eubank said it was difficult to determine whether the ban was working.
"The greatest percentage of our calls are alcohol-fuelled and whether you can honestly attribute any decline to alcohol prohibition is hard to say. It could be anything.
"Unemployment rates affect it the same way," he said. "I've been in communities where one of the biggest changes has been brought about by individual companies putting in alcohol screening programs for their employees."
The ban was a boon to bootleggers, Bohnet said.
"Since the ban was put in place, there has been an increase in drugs, bootlegging. We have quite a few dealers in the community," she said.
It also drove people to other substances, she added
"The drug addiction, drug abuse has increased in the community," she said.
"I know for a fact that some people that never used to abuse drugs, substance abuse, are into it now since the close."
Daniels said the goal is to have the ban officially lifted by April 1, 2017, but it might take longer.
"It's gotta go through legislation with GNWT and that's going to take a while," he said. "As soon as we get that notice, everybody will know. Until then it's still illegal until that legislation is passed.
