In a report which explains that North Bay City Council has recommended the city become a willing host municipality for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s controversial gaming modernization plan, North Bay CAO Jerry Knox has been cited as saying that the OLG has offered five per cent of casino revenue to the municipality.
The current slots-at-racetracks program, which employs in upwards of 60,000 Ontarians and annually sends the Province of Ontario $1.3 in direct revenue, also returns five per cent of gaming revenues to host municipalities, the same as what is being proposed under the OLG's modernization pitch.
The northbaynipissing.com article has quoted Knox as saying that the OLG's vague modernization pitch has stirred up “far more questions than there are answers,” and that the lack of consultation with the province "is disturbing.”
The report states that Knox has made the recommendation that North Bay Council agree to become a willing host municipality 'in principle,' subject to negotiations, confirmation, details, a revenue share agreement, site locations and derived community benefits.
(With files from northbaynipissing.com)
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If all the government wanted
If all the government wanted was the horseman's share of the 25% which works out to be approximately 138 million dollars then this means that they are willing to put 60,000 people out of work & cause the slaughter of thousands of horses for a measely 138 million dollars. They said that they closed Fort Erie, Windsor and Sarnia because they only made 100 million dollars. This means that they are doing this for only 38 million dollars. It will cost them more then that in welfare alone. Something is not right here. Someone is doing dirty buisness behind closed doors. Transparency & accountability by our elected officials would be a nice change.
I wonder if the 5% will be
I wonder if the 5% will be enough to cover the welfare costs this nonsense will create