Clyde River (July 26/04) - Clyde River residents are so afraid of violent bootleggers, they are refusing to take part in the community's alcohol education committee.

"Nobody wants to be on the committee," said committee member Mosa Palituq. "Some people think that if somebody's crazy drunk, that person might go after the committee."

Responsible for processing community applications for alcohol, the committee has not met for six months and has only four members -- two short of the six required for an official meeting.

About five liquor applications have been put on hold because the liquor education committee has been unable to meet, Palituq said.

A decision to temporarily involve the RCMP

was made during a July 12 meeting involving the hamlet, alcohol committee and RCMP members.

The hope is that by having police involved, people will feel more comfortable about involving themselves in the process, and help weed out applicants who may plan to bootleg.

"The RCMP knows what's going on in the community, who's bootlegging and who's doing what," said Clyde River RCMP Const. Eric Ootoovak.

The alcohol allotment for community members is two six-ounce containers a month per person. During the July 12 meeting, the alcohol education committee expressed concern that the amount of alcohol in the community seems to have risen, Ootoovak said.

"Too many people were wandering around while drunk," said senior administrative officer Steven Aipellee.

The majority of the problems with public intoxication occurred near the beginning of June, Aipellee said, but things have "been pretty quiet" since. But the involvement of RCMP in the liquor application approval process is not a new initiative in Nunavut.

"In other communities the alcohol committee includes RCMP all the time," Const. Ootoovak said.

The current measure is only temporary "until a bylaw or new council comes in, and hopefully it will be a permanent thing after," Ootoovak said.

Help is also needed to enlist new alcohol committee board members, Aipellee said. The SAO will now be taking care of all liquor order forms and the alcohol education committee's office is also being moved to the hamlet office in order to help things run smoothly.The alcohol education committee in Clyde River is having problems attracting enough members to hold a proper meeting to go over liquor applications. During a meeting July 12, it was decided that the RCMP and hamlet council will be temporarily brought into the process for approving liquor applications.