Ontario First Nations being blackmailed by province for casino licenses and fair compensation
NDP says Ontario discriminating against aboriginal charity casino
Chinta Puxley, October 22nd, 2007
TORONTO - The province is discriminating against a northern aboriginal charitable casino by not allowing it to offer card tables, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said Monday as he called on the Ontario government to restart negotiations aimed at sharing gambling revenues with aboriginal communities.
Chief Ken Skead, from the Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation, and the community's lawyer will be at the Ontario legislature Tuesday to pressure the province to allow for the casino's expansion.
The Golden Eagle Charitable Casino just outside Kenora is only allowed to offer a limited set of games while other charitable casinos which were granted licences at the same time have been allowed to expand, Hampton said.
"If you have table games - card games - that's a significant generator of employment in a community where you have a 75 to 80 per cent unemployment rate," Hampton said in an interview.
"Right now, they're only able to operate a very limited set of games. ... We want fair and equal treatment."
Gambling rights and revenues for aboriginal communities have been in limbo since the province's previous offer to share $2.5 billion in gambling revenue over the next 20 years was voted down by aboriginal chiefs in the summer.
The deal, which had been several years in the making, would have given aboriginal communities a cut of the province's gaming revenue but required them to drop any lawsuits over the 20 per cent "win tax" currently taken by the government from Casino Rama.
The newly re-elected Liberal government must restart negotiations aimed at resolving the thorny issue, starting with the $1 billion generated by the win tax, Hampton said.
"That has to be addressed," said Hampton, adding that doesn't mean the province can't treat the Kenora casino fairly in the meantime.
"The fact that you have some bigger issues to address should not detract from this particular issue."
Amy Tang, spokeswoman for Public Infrastructure Renewal Minister David Caplan, said requests for the expansion of charity casinos generally go through the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
But she said most issues related to aboriginal casinos and gaming were put on hold while the province negotiated a new revenue sharing agreement with the chiefs. Part of that defeated agreement would have established a First Nations gaming commission to oversee the expansion of aboriginal-run casinos, she said.
"Because the chiefs voted against that deal, I don't know where that leaves us right now," Tang said. "But we are committed to working with First Nations."