Nunavut’s first liquor store in decades opens
Alcohol-fuelled violence haunts territory
On its first day, a massive lineup had formed even before the doors were opened. In the days to come, waits of up to an hour were reported, even as Iqaluit began its September plunge towards freezing temperatures.
There’s now a dedicated Facebook page whose only purpose is to allow residents to track the length of the line.
“Bring a book,” was the Nunatsiaq News’ advice to readers.
Opened on Sept. 6, the cause for the massive queues is officially known as the Iqaluit Beer and Wine Store, and it’s the first time since Nunavut’s 1999 creation that it is possible to buy a case of beer over a counter.
Previously, the only way to legally buy take-home liquor in the Nunavut capital was to order an airfreighted shipment from Montreal or Rankin Inlet. In many other Nunavut communities, alcohol is either banned outright or restricted to an approved list of buyers.
So far, the police have noticed no spike in crime. In fact, it may well be the opposite.
In the first 12 days of the store’s opening, Nunavut RCMP received approximately 260 calls for service — roughly as many as for the same period in 2016.
Of those calls, 38 per cent “listed alcohol as being a factor.” The year before, 44 per cent of the calls in that period had been due to alcohol. This is despite explosive sales at the store. According to Iqaluit media, in only four days the store sold $100,000; 10 per cent of their expected sales for the year.
Years in the making, the beer and wine store was first approved in a 2015 plebiscite, when 77 per cent of Iqaluit voters supported the measure.
The city’s last liquor store closed in 1975.
That store, the Territorial Liquor Store, is now remembered with the same dread as other communities remember mass shootings or mine disasters. In only 15 years of operation, community members blamed it for a plague of violence and disorder that caused 49 alcohol-related deaths, including a young boy killed in an impaired snowmobile crash.
However, the philosophy behind the new store is that it will compel drinkers to consume low-alcohol beverages in measured quantities.
Previously, the shipping system meant that locals would receive large quantities of liquor all at once. Buyers would also be incentivized to order hard liquor in order to reduce shipping costs.
“I’m not a doctor but, in my experience, people don’t get as violent when they drink beer, and generally speaking after you drink a case of beer you have to go to the bathroom and you want to have a sleep,” RCMP Supt. Howard Eaton told the National Post in 2014.
The Iqaluit Beer and Wine Store is much different from the average liquor store in the “South.” For a start, the store is only open from noon to 7 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday. The 1,200-square-foot space is also devoid of visible alcohol bottles or advertisements.
Buyers have to present photo I.D., which clerks use to pull up the customer’s buying history. This way, staff are able to police a strict quota of 12 beers and two bottles of wine per person, per day.
Still, blind spots remain. One noted by APTN is that there is no mechanism to ban customers who are not allowed to buy alcohol as a condition of their bail.