Regional centres vote on beer and wine
Plebiscite to ask Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay residents whether they want beer and wine retail stores
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, April 17, 2017
RANKIN INLET/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Iqaluit voted yes. Now Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay residents will have their say on whether they want local beer and wine stores as the government holds plebiscites May 1.
Plebiscites to gauge community opinion on the opening of beer and wine stores will be held in both Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay on May 1. - NNSL file photo |
"There are pros and cons, there are people who are against and people who are for it, there is no majority yes, no majority no, so we'll just have to wait and see," said Cambridge Bay Mayor Jeannie Ehaloak when asked what the tone was in her hamlet.
The plebiscites are the result of petitions from each hamlet.
Cambridge Bay council received a petition bearing 42 names on Oct. 24. The petition only required 20 signatures to be considered, said acting senior administrative officer Jim MacEachern.
Rankin Inlet Mayor Robert Janes said his council received a petition bearing more than 80 names in the fall.
The Department of Finance -which is responsible for liquor -held a public meeting in Rankin Inlet on April 6. Janes said attendance was low at the Rankin Inlet meeting -roughly 15 people attended - making it difficult to gauge which way residents would vote. Rankin Inlet has a population of around 2,800.
"I think everybody had already made up their minds as to how they are going to vote," he said.
Cambridge Bay will host a meeting April 19. Ehaloak noted the meetings are being promoted by the hamlet but fully administered by the GN.
"I hope a lot of people come out to vote, even if you are for it or against it, your vote counts," said Ehaloak.
The plebiscites are non-binding, meaning the government is not required to act on the community vote even if the hamlet residents say they are in favour of opening a store.
Janes noted it's not the first time Rankin Inlet had a beer store.
Rankin Inlet resident and Nunavut News/North contributor Bill Gawor recalled when beer was provided to miners working at a nearby nickel mine in the 1970s.
"The mining company had a policy where they were allowed to have four cans of beer a day," he said. "There was never any problems, everybody made it to work."
Community members later had access to a beer ration when Rankin became a settlement.
"The Hudson Bay Company used to bring it in."
He said when the beer arrived, there would be a line up all the way out the store, with people picking up their quota of two 12-packs for the week.
Gawor said beer sales ended in the early 1980s following complaints that storage facilities weren't secure enough to hold alcohol - though he noted storage wasn't a huge priority since the beer all sold as soon as it arrived.
He said this was around the same time residents began to order spirits instead of beer because freight costs were the same for hard liquor as for lighter brew.
"Overnight, drinking habits changed from four per cent beer to 40 per cent hard liquor," he said.
Employed as a jail guard for the RCMP, he said he sees the negative impact this has, especially on youth in the hamlet, who make up the majority of alcohol-related arrests.
"People in the drunk tank, they're all youth, you seldom see an adult."
Cambridge Bay has seen similar problems, hamlet senior administrative officer Marla Limousin told Nunavut News/North in October, following the community petition for a beer and wine store.
"Alcohol has been an issue in the community. Bootlegging is an issue in the community, and consumption of hard liquor."
An October report titled Taking Steps to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harm in Nunavut suggested liberalizing access to low-content alcohol would help reduce binge drinking in the territory.
In a 2015 plebiscite showing a 40 percent voter turnout in Iqaluit only 326 of 1,452 Iqalungmiut who voted were opposed to the opening of the beer and wine store.
A pilot storefront is set to open in Iqaluit this summer. There is some concern that the store is being opened despite lack of addiction support facilities in the territory.
"Ultimately what the government is trying to do is help folks change behaviour towards alcohol," said Dan Carlson, assistant deputy minister for the Department of Finance, who was present at the Rankin Inlet public meeting.
"This is the first plan for a beer and wine store in the territory since 1999. We know that people across the territory are paying attention."
Eligible voters will be Canadian citizens 18 or older as of May 1, and a resident of Rankin Inlet or Cambridge Bay who has lived in Nunavut for at least one year.
An advance poll for the beer and wine plebiscite will be held on April 24. A mobile poll for those with mobility issues is available that day. Anyone unable to vote on May 1 or at the advance polls can apply to vote via special ballot.
