Article content continued

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.

Photo by Nunavut Ministry of Finance

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.

Nevertheless, the opposition has been intense.

Paul Okalik, who served as the territory’s first premier, resigned from the Nunavut cabinet in March, 2016, citing his opposition to the store.

“I cannot support an institution of selling beer and wine in my community, while we don’t have the facilities to support those who may not be able to combat their addictions,” he said in a statement to the territorial legislature.