"Labrador Welcomes Ban On Alcohol Sales"

ST.JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) _ Newfoundland's decision to transfer control of alcohol sales to local authorities in northern Labrador has been welcomed by the region's largest aboriginal group and the RCMP.

The provincial government made the change this week after receiving a request from the Labrador Inuit Association a 5,200-member group stunned by more than a dozen suicides in the region within the past year.

After a series of meetings involving a group of volunteer "listeners," the Inuit decided alcohol abuse was at the root of most social problems on the northern coast of Labrador.

"While we didn't get everything we wanted... we see this (move) as a positive sign," said William Barbour, president of the association. RCMP Sgt. Kevin Baillie agreed. "Giving the communities some control over their own destinies is a very good thing," Baillie said in an interview from Nain, the largest and most northerly Inuit town in Labrador.

But it remains unclear what these communities will do with their new powers. While towns like Nain can now ban the sale of alcohol, such a drastic measure won't be taken until after another round of public consultations and a possible referendum.

Baillie, who has worked in Nain for almost a year, said support for a ban peaked while the town was struggling to cope with the sudden rash of suicides earlier this year. "At that time there was a feeling that if he community had been polled, the majority would have gone for an outright ban," Baillie said. "It's a heavy issue and quite emotional."

Indeed, there are some in the community who believe alcoholism is merely a symptom of larger problems that can be traced back to the upheaval caused by the provincial government's resettlement policies in the 1950s.

"This move doesn't take away from the many, many mistakes the government made with aboriginal people on the coast," said Wally Anderson, an Inuk who represents the district in the provincial House of Assembly.

"Being an aboriginal person myself, I fully understand the impact that alcohol has on the lives of aboriginal people. If we are to make things better, the solution has to come from the people on the north coast."

However, Barbour said the province rejected the Inuit association's request to set up a separate, local authority to oversee alcohol sales. Such an arrangement is already being used in two Inuit communities in Nunavut.

"It hasn't gone where we think the community wanted it to go," said Barbour, who is one of 1,300 Inuit in Nain.

Under the changes proposed by the Newfoundland government, the province's Liquor Licensing Board will maintain ultimate authority, he said.

But the board will be required to withhold or cancel liquor licenses whenever a town or community council in northern Labrador asks the board to do so.

The new rule applies to the electoral district of Torngat Mountains, a vast chunk of land that includes most communities north of Lake Melville and east of the Smallwood Reservoir.

The area also includes the troubled Innu community of Davis Inlet, a town of 600 about 100 kilometres southeast of Nain. It does not include the Innu town of Sheshatshiu.

Both Innu communities attracted national attention last month after Innu leaders raised the alarm about widespread gas sniffing among Innu youth.