During the evening hours of Tuesday, March 5, Woolwich Township's Council will be taking part in a crucial vote regarding whether or not it wants to be a willing host community for casino expansion under the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s controversial gaming modernization plan. All other surrounding jurisdictions in the area have scoffed at the OLG's casino carrot-dangling routine, indicating that they are not interested.

As an article by therecord.com explains, Woolwich Mayor Todd Cowan and four Township Councillors will hear from separate delegations regarding the issue before voting on whether to declare Woolwich a willing host for casino proposals.

A public consultation performed by the Township on the issue has determined that a whopping 62 per cent of respondents are against the idea of a casino being allowed to come to Woolwich.

The OLG's modernization has been a polarizing topic across the province for months upon months now. It is clear that Ken Seiling, the Chair of Waterloo Region, feels passionately about his position on the issue.

Ken, who is the brother of Ontario Racing Commission Chair Rod Seiling, has registered himself as a delegation in order to tell Woolwich Council that he is dead against the proposed casino expansion.

“I’m going as a resident of Woolwich Township,” Ken was quoted as saying by therecord.com. He added that it's “an issue that I feel very strongly about" and that he doesn't believe casino expansion is the right thing to do for Woolwich.

As the report explains, Ken isn't alone, as local municipals representatives in Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and in the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley and Wilmot have all either voted against a casino or expressed no interest.

The article explains that even though the public feedback process utilized by Woolwich clearly showed that respondents were not interested in casino expansion either, it appears as though Mayor Cowan does not necessarily want to agree with those empirical findings. The report has quoted Cowan as saying that he has apparently talked to people in the community about the issue, and from those unknown number of unrecorded conversations he has concluded that the people he talked to are split about "50-50" on the casino issue.

(With files from therecord.com)