IQALUIT - Nunavut residents won't feel the effects of the European Union (EU) liquor moratorium right away, as the territory's warehouses have months of supply to go through.

Iqaluit's liquor warehouse will run out of EU products, based on current sale volumes, in three to four months. - Kassina Ryder/NNSL photo

Nunavut's legislative assembly passed a motion March 11 banning the purchase of EU alcoholic products destined for the territories' liquor commission in response to the EU import ban on seal products. But residents can still buy EU alcohol from retailers outside the territory.

Nunavut will continue selling the EU products from its warehouses until that runs out. Excluding beer, the EU products in the warehouses account for 45 per cent of inventory. Based on current sale volumes, EU products in the Rankin Inlet warehouse should last approximately six to eight months. As for the Iqaluit warehouse, the EU inventory should last another three to four months. When those stores dry up new stock will not be ordered.

The territory's finance department oversees the Nunavut Liquor Commission. Its minister, Keith Peterson, who abstained from the voting on the motion, said it's difficult to gauge how businesses and residents will react to the moratorium as they can still get EU products from liquor outlets down south. If that avenue was also banned, he said he thinks customers would be "very upset."

"It's difficult for me to say if it will have the intended benefit that (South Baffin MLA Fred) Schell and the MLAs intended. If I don't know what their intentions were, but, obviously, they didn't want to put too much of a burden on the Nunavut Liquor Commission because they will continue to sell the products that we already have. If we had to dispose of all the products we had in the warehouse, that would have been very costly," he said. "I know symbolically, it's important for the people of Nunavut. Seal products, seal harvesting is near and dear to the folks right across Nunavut. I wear a seal skin vest when I'm an MLA."

Asked about his favourite alcoholic beverage, Peterson said he doesn't drink while in Iqaluit. He did point out in Cambridge Bay, where News/North reached him, people typically purchase their alcohol, after obtaining the proper permit, through Yellowknife or Edmonton.

But for those who drink while in Iqaluit, the Storehouse Bar and Grill is an option as is ordering alcohol from Marche Turenne in Quebec.

At the Storehouse Bar and Grill in Iqaluit, manager Steve Sullivan said the moratorium won't affect business, rather change how he does business.

"The government has put the restrictions on and we're just going to learn to adapt and to try to satisfy our customer's needs in different ways," he said. "Offer some other products. Find some unique ways of presenting the products we do have. It means marketing and promoting in a different way. I'm looking forward to the challenge."

Sullivan said the moratorium would affect a couple of brands the bar offers, which are popular some days, less popular on other days.

"It affects us somewhat but not to a great extent. If you take away Heineken, there is still Corona available. There are still brands from other countries that aren't European-based that we can get access to," he said. "It may have us just use Canadian brands. In terms of wine and things that way, it may open some doors for some Canadian business and that should be a good thing."

Marche Turenne in Laval, Que., ships about 20 orders to individuals in Nunavut, with each order ranging on average from $300 to $500. With the EU liquor moratorium, co-owner Johanne Lepine said she doesn't expect her business to grow. Most of her business, she added, is within Nunavik not Nunavut.

"We have a certain quantity (of) orders that we can do per day. I don't think that I will increase this volume," she said. "It's tough to say. For now, there is nothing to tell me that we'll have an increase."

--With files from Kassina Ryder