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City hires consultant to review liquor act

Where and when people can consume alcohol in Iqaluit driving force behind public meeting

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Want to buy a six-pack of beer but don’t want to pay the permit fees? Others may say cracking down on alcohol-related crimes is more of a concern.

Whatever a person’s thoughts on local liquor sales, the City of Iqaluit wants to know and has hired the Iqaluit-based Ekho Inuit Originals, to find out.

The $10,000 study began with a two-day public meeting April 3 at the Anglican parish hall. The meeting follows on the heels of a report released by the Nunavut Liquor Licencing Board late last year. The report suggests 10 ways the government might improve liquor distribution across the territory.

Mayor John Matthews said this week’s meeting will add a further Iqaluit perspective to the Nunavut-wide report.

"Hopefully we’ll gather some relevant information," Matthews said on the first day of the meeting. "If the information is passed to other communities that’s good but our focus is Iqaluit."

Several dozen people, including restaurant managers, RCMP officers and concerned citizens, attended the meeting on April 3.

Matthews expected a final report would go to the department of finance — which oversees liquor legislation — next month.

People who were unable to attend the meeting but who still want to provide input can contact the Niksiit committee at city hall.

The 10 Nunavut Liquor Act recommendations put forward by the Nunavut Liquor Licencing board include:

• more liberal access to alcohol in communities

• lower import fees

• revisiting current penalties applying to unlawful liquor sales

• giving responsibility for special occasion permits, currently overseen by the liquor licensing branch, to hamlet offices

• renaming Alcohol Education Committees to Oversight Committees

• electing separate bodies to serve on oversight committees

• encouraging liquor licencing and enforcement officials to support oversight committees.

• providing information pamphlets about the Nunavut Liquor Act

• charging the government of Nunavut with evaluating existing programs to deal with alcohol problems

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