Nunavut's second-largest community will once again have a liquor ban this holiday season, but the decision to have a ban came after hamlet council debated for nearly an hour about it on Monday.

Rankin Inlet's council has imposed a temporary ban on the import of alcohol for two weeks every December. One exception was in 2006, when councillors voted not to impose a ban on liquor for that holiday season. Council reintroduced the ban in 2007.

This year's holiday alcohol ban will run from Dec. 23, 2008, to Jan. 2, 2009.

But councillors in the hamlet of 2,350 struggled with the motion for a holiday liquor ban at Monday afternoon's council meeting, holding three separate votes and debating for nearly an hour before the motion narrowly passed — three voted in favour of it, two voted against, and one abstained.

"I've seen the numbers from the police reports in the previous years. They seemed to help in the past, when we banned it," Coun. Noah Tiktak, the main proponent of the temporary ban, told CBC News on Monday.

"And then when we kept it open that one year, there was quite a big difference."

But Coun. Hamish Tatty said an alcohol ban would simply take away from the families of people suffering from alcohol addictions.

"It's benefiting the bootleggers," Tatty said. "They raise their prices, and the poor individuals around town who can barely buy one will have to spend that much more for the bottle, instead of for their families."

Tatty estimated that a bootlegged bottle of liquor usually costs about $150 in Rankin Inlet, but that price would double around Christmas time.

Tatty said a liquor ban may also result in more break-and-enter incidents in Rankin Inlet.

But Tiktak said he's looking out for the interests of his community, even though bootlegging is a problem there.

"There's always going to be bootleggers and drug dealers and what have you out there. Whether we try and ban them or not, it's always going to be there," Tiktak said.

"But I'm just thinking of the Christmas activities and the people, so I'm just thinking about the community."