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NUNAVUT - The chair of Kugluktuk's alcohol education committee says last year's decision to restrict alcohol in the community has significantly reduced crimes involving alcohol.

"Alcohol-related occurrences have decreased, youth crime has decreased," said Gary Kennedy. "Other communities have increased; we're decreasing.

"I think some people would have differing opinions," he said about the committee's success. "But I think our statistics don't lie."

Kennedy said the committee meets every Monday and usually averages between 18 and 20 appointments for alcohol permits each week. The committee reviews the application then forwards it to the local RCMP, who check to see if the applicant has been arrested within the last three months. If they have, then the application is denied.

"At first we faced a lot of people who were opposed to it," he said. "The community is more accepting of it now."

Sgt. Maurice Poisson in Kugluktuk said the community's crime statistics support Kennedy's statement.

"I know that our comparison was three years ago, we were pretty much on par with Cambridge Bay for activity," he said. "They've continued to increase, whereas last year we had a 30 per cent reduction in incidents and a 38 per cent reduction in prisoners."

He agreed the alcohol committee has been successful.

By "restricting alcohol in this community, and I will give credit to the alcohol committee, there has been a 30 per cent on average decrease and the trend has been continuing for the past two months."

Cape Dorset also has an alcohol committee, but bootlegging is still a huge problem in the community.

RCMP Sgt. James McLaren at the detachment in Cape Dorset said most of the crimes he deals with can be traced to alcohol.

"I would say it's a problem. Yes, absolutely. The vast majority of my work here is alcohol-related," he said.

He said Cape Dorset's alcohol committee has been successful in trying to regulate the alcohol that comes into town, but people evading the committee is a problem.

"As far as I'm concerned, they're doing a good job in attempting to regulate it, but it doesn't stop the people that are circumventing the system," he said.

"I do know for a fact that bootlegging is a huge concern in this community, as well as across the North.

"We have a large problem with people bringing large, large quantities of alcohol into the community then selling it illegally from their houses," he said.

"People are hiring other people to bring alcohol into the community, and they're bringing in copious amounts; bottles and bottles and bottles of vodka."

McLaren said people who wouldn't receive approval from the committee bypass the committee and obtain alcohol illegally.

"The people that we deal with tend not to be the ones that are obtaining their alcohol legally, within the guidelines," he said. "We're dealing with the ones that wouldn't be able to get their alcohol legally, the ones that have been in trouble repeatedly with alcohol."

Poisson said Kugluktuk also has a problem with bootleggers in the community, but more often than not, people use the alcohol committee to make purchases.

"Why would I pay $300 for a 60 oz bottle when I can order it for myself and get two to three times the quantity for the same price?" he said. "People who have caused problems go to bootleggers, but for the most part, people do get their applications processed here."

Const. Greg Deagle of the Cambridge Bay RCMP said he believes an alcohol education committee in Cambridge Bay would greatly reduce crime rates, as has been the case in Kugluktuk.

"I mean you look at a place like Kugluktuk that has a similar population size. Since they put in their alcohol restrictions, I believe the calls for police service have dropped by almost half."

Peter Harte, a legal aid lawyer in Cambridge Bay, said 90 per cent of his cases in the region stem from alcohol.

"Ninety per cent of my docket in the Kitikmeot, and from my conversations with other legal aid lawyers, 90 per cent of the docket in most of Nunavut is the product of alcohol," he said.

He said he was one of the people backing the implementation of an alcohol committee in the hamlet last year, which was voted down in a plebiscite.