Bootleggers win from holiday booze bans: Rankin deputy mayor

Rankin Inlet will not ban alcohol orders over Christmas this year.

The hamlet did impose a ban last year, but RCMP said the ban didn't slow down the number of calls over the holidays.

Harry Towtongie is the Deputy Mayor.

The bootleggers tend to order more liquor and sell it for more money," Towtongie says, "therefore depriving even more kids of money that should be going to them.

Towtongie says that was just one of the issues among many.

Rankin Inlet is one of several Nunavut communities known as a 'restricted' community. The hamletallows residents to import liquor, as long as orders are placed through a locally elected alcohol education committee. Many other communities have banned alcohol altogether.

Several other restricted-alcohol communities inNunavut are debating whether to put holiday booze bans in place this year.

In Kimmirut, the hamlet voted to ban booze orders between Dec. 20 and Jan. 4.