Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Cambridge Bay (Jan 28/02) - The Nunavut government's new liquor laws were designed to crack down on bootleggers, but one Kitikmeot community wants to do more.

Cambridge Bay is struggling to control rampant bootlegging. Fear and addiction keeps people from blowing the whistle and bootleggers keep making the money.

"I wish (bootleggers) would just be wiped off the earth," said Elizabeth Kaosoni, alcohol and drug counsellor with the Wellness Centre in Cambridge Bay. "They piss me off."

Cambridge Bay's hamlet council passed a resolution on Jan. 10 against bootleggers and drug dealers.

The purely symbolic move is meant to send a message to the community that it was time to change things, said Terry McCallum, deputy mayor.

McCallum said he wants to hold a public forum for the community to voice their concerns and come up with suggestions on how to curb alcohol and drug abuse in the Cambridge Bay.

The meeting will be sometime in early February, said McCallum.

The hamlet is hoping to expand services provided through the Wellness Centre. McCallum said the hamlet is looking at swapping buildings with Arctic College to get a bigger location.

"It's not official yet," he said.

Kaosoni said bootleggers are draining the life from families in the community.

"It's like highway robbery," said Kaosoni of the $300 price for a bottle of hard liquor. "What are the kids going to eat?"

But fear seems to keep people in the community from tipping police about bootleggers.

"If you speak out people will confront you and sometimes the confrontations can get tense," said a woman in the community who didn't want to be named.

"I know of about 20 people who bootleg," she said. "If you want to buy liquor you go to someone who knows someone and they'll take you a house and if they trust you at a glance then they'll sell you it."

Bootleggers are known to make up to $10,000 a week.

She said most of the liquor that gets bootlegged is ordered from Yellowknife. There are no restrictions on the amount of alcohol a person can order.

RCMP Sgt. Gary Peck compared bootlegging to the drug trade.

"They're one in the same," said Peck. "People don't want to speak out because they don't want to cut off their line of alcohol."

Peck said the police need the community to fight the problem.

"These people are making money off the misery of others," said Peck.

Last year police dealt with 504 liquor related offences