Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I talked about alcohol impacts on our communities. I would to ask the Minister of Finance some questions on some of the items that I thought might help, hours of operation for liquor stores and purchasing limits. I would like to ask if the Minister or his staff can begin discussing the hours of operations with the communities that have liquor stores, to see if they are amenable to looking at hours adjusted, with the thought of combatting bootlegging. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The consumption of alcohol and the effects of alcohol is a very sensitive topic across the Northwest Territories. A lot of people grew up with the effects of alcohol. A lot of people are still feeling the effects of alcohol, even today, and I totally agree with the Member. I mean, if there are steps that we can take to try to curb the consumption of alcohol, one of the first things we would like to do is we like to see people make the decision to quit their drinking. That is always a first good step, but we need to do what we can as a government and as a society to try to help them do that. Is shortening the hours or lengthening the hours going to help? We don't know that. They may. They may not. I can see shortening the hours as to maybe increasing the number of trips that people need to make to bootleggers because they don't have the liquor store open.
There are a number of things that need to be taken into consideration, and there is always a willingness to have that discuss with people. We have an election coming up in about a month and a half, and then there is a new slate of MLAs that will be coming out, a new Legislative Assembly that will be coming. Of course, there are going to be some new MLAs who come in as well. I think it would be and should be a priority of theirs when they come in, and it should still be a priority of ours as we are leaving the Assembly.
We need to take what steps we can. We see the effects of alcohol all over the place, all of the time, small communities, large communities. We would like to see what we can do to try to help alleviate the problem. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In my Member's statement, I spoke of the City of Yellowknife having discussing on operation hours of the liquor store. I think that the initial concept was that they would reduce the amount of hours, and it was, I think, rejected by council. I would like to ask the Minister if his department could have some form of dialogue with the City. It is quite possible that the best way to combat bootlegging with operational hours would be to have the liquor store open longer so that people don't go and feed the bootlegger, that they are able to go to the liquor store most hours that they wish to.
I am not advocating that the liquor store be open 24/7, but maybe something with more hours would have the people who are looking for alcohol go to the liquor store as opposed to supporting bootlegging.
We can always have those discussions with not only the City of Yellowknife, but we can have those discussions with all of the communities that do have liquor stores in them. I mean, we all know how sneaky smart a lot of these bootleggers are, and they will always find ways around everything. Everything that you try to do to combat the problem, they will find ways around. I think there was a rationing system that was tried. I know that, in my home community, a number of years ago, they found ways around that. We have to be vigilant in trying deal with this. Again, we will have discussions with anybody, any time, on the effects of alcohol on the people of the Northwest Territories.
In Iqaluit, recently, they opened a beer-wine store, and they put some restrictions and limits on the amount of wine and beer that can be purchased by an individual, I think, like, 24 cans of beer and maybe four bottles of wine, or a combination of something. In our liquor stores, we also have that added hard liquor.
I was wondering if we should start to think about putting restrictions on the amount of alcohol an individual can purchase in one day. I know that, sometimes, these programs or ideas backfire. Preventing people from getting alcohol sometimes doesn't work. However, I think that preventing people from buying cases and cases of alcohol might work.
I would like to ask the Minister if his department could start looking at restrictions, dealing, again, with individuals that are directly involved, like the councils and the liquor store operators, but to start looking at ways of restricting the amount of alcohol an individual can buy in one purchase.
The Liquor Act provides for provisions for community control on the sale and distribution of liquor in the community. A community can request to hold a plebiscite on these types of controls. The department works with the communities on that process, including developing the question.
Any broader change that would apply across the Northwest Territories would likely require a legislative change. This is something that the 19th Assembly could look at, but the department, in anticipation of that, could develop some options for consideration.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is exactly what I was thinking of: a legislative change. I think that going to the communities and having the communities vote on this type of thing sometimes works, sometimes doesn't work. People are upset over those types of decisions, but I was thinking of making a legislative change saying that an individual person can only purchase a certain amount of alcohol in a day. The limits could be adequate for most people who are using alcohol, but certainly not adequate for bootleggers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Like I said before, we can have those discussions with the operators, or we can have those discussions with communities. It is something that I believe has been tried before. As I said before, they do always find ways around it. I agree with the Member 100 percent that this is an issue that really has an adverse effect on the people of the Northwest Territories. Always has; always has.
We hope, with some of the changes that we have made, some of the education out there, and people seeing first-hand the effects of alcohol, that they would make a decision to change their lifestyle. There is always support there for them, but we do realize that a lot of these people need help. By putting in some of the changes that the Member is suggesting, that might be a start. Again, we could start the work, and then we would hope that the 19th Assembly would come and carry the ball. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
