Two airlines that serve the province’s far north are being criticized for recent policy changes on the shipment of liquor.
Transwest Air and Pronto Airways officials attended a December meeting organized by the Prince Albert Grand Council on the issue of bootlegging.
Transwest Air chief operating officer Garrett Lawless says what he heard was quite sobering.
“We are trying to do everything that we can to try and stop bootlegging, the specific act of bootlegging, because the stories of how bootlegging is impacting some of these communities is really horrific. The act of bootlegging is literally robbing these communities of their future because of what it is doing, especially to the youth.”
But Uranium City resident Dan Murphy says he’s been told by both airlines that he can no longer have beer shipped up to him every two weeks. Murphy also says he wasn’t given much of an explanation.
“Other than the fact that it was Native-owned and that they didn’t have to ship alcohol. I don’t care if they don’t ship alcohol to Fond du Lac or Black Lake, but there’s no reason they can stop a provincial town from having their beer.”
Murphy also says a Uranium City man who’s battling cancer and needs liquor to properly flush his system had his alcohol shipment denied at the Saskatoon airport as recently as yesterday.
Lawless says his airline doesn’t have a blanket policy that prevents all liquor from being shipped on flights to the Athabasca Basin. He says the approach is to deny shipments that look suspicious, but allow the rest.
But Lawless admits it’s difficult to manage situations that look like bootlegging but involve communities that aren’t dry reserves.
“If someone is carrying alcohol to a non-dry location and there are indicators that it is for bootlegging, but not proof of bootlegging, this is where we get into a grey area. And this is why previous initiatives to try and prevent this activity from happening failed.”
But Pronto Airways spokesman Dennis Baranieski confirms his airline has started to deny all shipments of liquor to any destination as of April 1.
“Our policy is that Pronto Airways will not accept alcohol shipments, period. We’re continually being approached by the communities of the north who say ‘help us’. There’s a very, very serious alcohol problem that’s generating a lot of social unrest in those communities in the Athabasca.”
Baranieski says they’ve tried different approaches that have not had the desired impact, so they are making this move even though it impacts others.
“It isn’t something that works for everyone in the north. We’re not trying to say that people who use alcohol responsibly should be penalized. But at the end of the day, we’re trying to come up with a policy that is workable and that we can actually execute on to be successful.”
He notes this is a decision that actually hurts the airline’s bottom line, but they are trying to do the responsible thing.
“This hasn’t been an easy decision for us. It certainly has negative economic impact to our freight side of our business. And at the end of the day, we’re willing to accept that. We just want to help the communities out.”
He adds while the leadership of the seven communities in the Athabasca Basin understand the airline’s position, he admits it was met with “mixed reaction”.
Baranieski also notes this is the time of year when all the pressure to ship liquor comes — when the ice roads are no longer passable, it’s too early for barges and the airlines are the only choice for getting product in and out. But he notes there are trucking firms that will still accept liquor shipments in other times of the year.