On Tuesday, October 28 in the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park, Finance Minister Charles Sousa said that the provincial government will abandon its plans to relocate the Thousand Island Casino from Gananoque to Kingston.
An article by insidebrockville.com explains that on Monday (October 27), on a municipal election ballot question, residents in Kingston voted two to one against the idea of having a casino located in Kingston.
A report by gananoquereporter.com states that even thought the results were not legally binding due to the fact that voter turnout was less than 50 per cent, Kingston Mayor-elect Bryan Paterson and other council members said they would respect the voters' wishes.
Kingston’s position means that the city would not technically be a ‘willing host community’ in regard to brick-and-mortar gaming expansion. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. has gone on the record as saying that it will not impose casino expansion on any municipality that does not want it. As the gananoquereporter.com article explains, Minister Sousa echoed those sentiments at Queen’s Park Tuesday when the topic came up.
“The government will not impose a location of a gaming site on a municipality, so we will respect Kingston's desire not to do so,” Sousa said during Question Period on Tuesday after queries on the subject from Steve Clark, the MPP for Leeds-Grenville.
(With files from gananoquereporter.com and insidebrockville.com)
Also in response to "Yank" -
Also in response to "Yank" - thank goodness.
In response to
In response to "Yank"...........no!!
from a "Yank"! Could anybody
from a "Yank"!
Could anybody tell me if a casino has actually opened in Ontario (or even begun construction) since the 2012 debacle?
Many thanks.
Ironically, none of the
Ironically, none of the existing Casinos or Racinos in Ontario were approved by the public by a vote. They were just opened. The Casinos on Native land affect communities around them. I attend regularly at Casino Rama and I enjoy it, however my brother lives in Orillia and notes they now have a dozen pawn shops in the Sunshine city that weren't there before the Casino.
As stated I support Casinos with my patronage, but do they really help the communities? Venture off the strip in Vegas or Atlantic City. On second thought, don't, it's not pretty. Racing at least supports a variety of businesses all intertwined and most of the profits go to those businesses and not just one.
So, I really think the people in the communities should have a say in where Gambling institutions are located.
Georg Leber-ICR Racing