Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 26, 2007

RESOLUTE - At a recent constituency meeting with MLA Levi Barnabas, Resolute residents expressed concern over the possibility of a bar opening in the new military training centre that was promised by the federal government this past August.

A Twin Otter is readied for a routine flight during a Canadian Ranger sovereignty patrol out of Resolute in 2005. Community members say they don't want a public bar to open in the military training centre that will have its first personnel come through next March. - NNSL file photo

Resolute has a dark history involving liquor and the armed forces. The American military had a base in Resolute between the late 1940s and late 1970s, with a bar that was open to community members. When the military left, the bar remained.

"At the beginning it was not too bad," said Mayor Susan Salluviniq. "Later on... it got pretty bad ... People were spending all of their money."

Residents said when alcohol was readily available in town, there were alcohol-related vehicle deaths and some children were born with fetal alcohol syndrome.

"My husband and I were the worst drunks in our community," Salluviniq said, adding that it wasn't until she found God that she quit.

Salluviniq was in the second group of settlers to be relocated to Resolute from her birthplace of Pond Inlet.

"The pain the first settlers had is still being carried out today, although there are some of us who have been healed," she said. "People are slowly starting to see the good side of it, that it was always God's plan for us to be here."

In 1981, the bar closed without notice. More than 10 years passed before an alcohol education committee was formed in town, requiring those who wished to drink to obtain a permit from the locally-run committee.

"The people expressed to me they don't want it to go back to the old system," Barnabas said.

Captain Joanna Labonte, spokesperson for the Canadian Forces Joint Task Force North, wasn't able to confirm if a mess – a social setting where alcohol is served – would be opened in the Resolute facility. A mess is open to all serving military members, and at some bases, such as the one in Yellowknife, the mess is open to associate members who are non-military members of the community.

Labonte presumed that the situation would be different in Resolute as the military training centre will not be permanently inhabited. If there is a mess, it most likely would not be open to associate members, she said.

"If it's set up legally and it's a private bar, fine," said the town's acting SAO Ralph Alexander. "If it's set up so other people can go in, we want there to be a bit more input from the community."

Alexander said the centre would not be independent of the community, and if the military were to choose to serve alcohol, they would be subject to local regulations.

Alexander said he has lived in the community since the mid-1970s and has seen it go through a great deal of positive change.

"There's more local control of everything," he said.

He said more people are working and locals are now responsible for the community. While monitoring alcohol has helped the situation, it's not the sole reason for the improvement.

"Decisions are made closer to home and that's the real difference," he said.

Alexander said that Resolute being chosen as the site for the military training centre is an opportunity for local contractors and residents.

"We don't want to drive them away ... but at the same time, they have to follow the rules, same as everybody else."

Salluviniq echoed his thoughts, saying that "we are looking more at the positive side of things, rather than the negatives."