Former Nunavut premier Paul Okalik is shown arriving at the Western Premiers conference in Prince Albert, Sask., in 2008.Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
Paul Okalik showed courage last week when he resigned from his post as Minister of Health and Justice in Nunavut. Mr. Okalik, a former premier of Nunavut, quit because he can't support the opening of a new government liquor store in Iqaluit while the territory still doesn't have adequate addiction treatment centres.
He's right to do that. As a dry alcoholic who says he hasn't had a drink since 1991, he knows the dangers of booze. As the former premier and health minister, he has seen the devastation that alcohol causes in the northern territory. His resignation is a wake-up call to Ottawa, which needs to increase funding for the missing services.
But while Mr. Okalik has brought attention to one issue, he has unintentionally obscured another one: that there is a chance the new liquor store will reduce the territory's problems with alcohol.
There hasn't been a liquor store in Iqaluit in 40 years, after the last one was forced to close as a result of public outrage over booze-related deaths. Some Nunavut communities are now dry, and others have limited access to booze, all of it supplied at huge cost to the purchaser through the government. It's essentially a kind of Prohibition, with the inevitable smuggling industry providing black-market buyers with anything they can afford.
The smart buyer purchases high-proof alcohol in plastic bottles – usually vodka – that is relatively cheap to ship to the North. The result is binge-drinking when the latest shipment arrives, followed by violence and other bad outcomes.
The new store will sell only beer and wine. With the government's purchasing power behind it, those lower-alcohol-content products will be less expensive than anything anyone can buy on the black market or ship in themselves. While there might be an uptick in drinking when the store opens, over the long run it should help reduce binge-drinking. At least, that is what the police and the government hope.
Of course, the surest way to prevent alcohol abuse would be to ban booze altogether. There are studies that show some dry communities in Nunavut have lower violent crime rates than regular communities. But Prohibition never works the way it is intended. Coupled with the proper social services, Nunavut's new approach might be the best of all possible worlds.