Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement today, I spoke about a number of possible changes to the Liquor Act. I guess one of my hopes is that in the Liquor Act, we will revisit the current liquor commission monopoly and perhaps looking at options of private stores or allowing beer and wine in grocery stores.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to ask answer the second of the two questions first. I have recently spoken to the department and reiterated the importance of getting this piece of legislation moving along. It's a large act. It hasn't been updated in a long time and it's now in a state with lots of different pieces in it. But that is still my goal to see that it does is ready for introduction during this Assembly. And I'll continue to update Members accordingly.
Mr. Speaker, right now, there's not any consideration to expanding the current retail model that sells liquor. That is not something I'll be doing at this point and obviously if, or hopefully when, the Liquor Act comes before the House, certainly then we'll be open to hearing what all Members have to say and see how they may want to treat that piece of legislation at that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My hope in getting that change made is that in Yellowknife presently there's two liquor stores. The licence to that is in 2025, and I was hoping that in place by for 2025 when we go out to some sort of competitive process, I had some issues with the last one that well, it would be a competitive process that would allow, you know, some different options of who would run the liquor store possibly, and I was also wondering if in 2025, when we put that out under possibly a new Liquor Act, whether the possibility of an additional store in Yellowknife would be considered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a lot of hypotheticals at this point given that we're still under the current act and given that the tender hasn't even been begun; that process hasn't even begun yet. But right now, the way it's set up under the act is, of course, that it has to go through a system whereby the official retailer would have to be designated. And even before getting to that point, Mr. Speaker, when considering what the procurement process would look like, and there's an analysis that's done by the NTLCC, the liquor commission, that looks at whether or not more stores are needed, whether the current quantity and type of store is, in fact, working. And as I say, again, at this stage we're still a little bit early given that we're three years out. But those are the kinds of considerations that go into determining who or what type of procurement takes place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I think there's a lot of work that could be done in opening up the Liquor Act, and I think one of the big areas that I would like to see is delegating some more powers to communities and I think they could set things such as store hours, whether they want a store, whether they want to set limits on how much alcohol can be sold, how alcohol can be served at festivals and events, how licences can be obtained. There's actually I'd basically like to give the whole act to communities, Mr. Speaker. But I'm wondering if in the planned changes that we are hoping to get done in this Assembly whether delegating some authority on liquor to communities is at all being considered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, communities have a lot more power than just prohibition or not. They actually can hold plebiscites here across the Northwest Territories to determine what type of system they want, what kinds of rules they want, the nature or degree of prohibition they may want. And there are powers within the act for some of the liquor licence sales that they may want to see on different properties within the community. So there actually is quite a bit in there already community to community. I certainly again, though, this is, indeed, the kind of question and the kind of area that is under consideration for the Liquor Act and ways in which to continue to make it flexible and responsive because the MLA's quite right that this is an area where is quite a great divide between the different communities in trying to find that balance to allow everyone to make the choices that they think are appropriate for their community's going to be a difficult one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think another area where there's quite a great divide is open beverage. And I think it's no surprise that many people, they drink their beer at a softball game in Yellowknife but when the police come we all run and we throw our beer cans away so as not to get arrested, yet then when you go downtown it's no surprise to see a bunch of people drinking in public already. And I mentioned in my statement that, you know, we mandate beer gardens presently. You can't ever have alcohol being drank around minors such as at festivals and events. I'm wondering when we go out for this engagement on the public Liquor Act whether open beverage is one of those conversations we can have? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the question of public consumption was one of the questions that was part of a recent consultation in preparation for the Liquor Act review and that "what we heard" report is coming, I believe, later this session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
