Vernon’s casino is moving but without any extra cash for the community. Council voted 4-3 Monday to allow Lake City Casinos to 
move to larger premises on Anderson Way. While that will lead to more revenue for the city, efforts to pursue further funds from the business were shot down. “Four of them were so entrenched in the belief that we need a bigger casino that we didn’t achieve a thing,” said Coun. Barry Beardsell. Beardsell and Councillors Buffy Baumbrough and Juliette Cunningham pushed for an agreement with Lake City Casinos for funding beyond the casino revenue the city receives under provincial policy.Such an agreement exists between the City of Vancouver and a casino operator there.
“We needed to take this opportunity to negotiate a better deal,” said Cunningham. With relocation now approved, Cunningham believes the city has lost any authority to pursue a side deal. “Why would they negotiate with us? They got what they wanted,” she said. Mayor Wayne Lippert and Councillors Pat Cochrane, Jack Gilroy and Patrick Nicol voted to relocate the casino. Lippert is confident an agreement for additional funds can be worked out with Lake City Casinos. “We will continue to work to get more. When they were at the public hearing, they said they wanted to be good corporate citizens,” he said. Lake City Casinos officials say their business plan does not call for additional funding for the city.
“We’d have to review it and see if it makes sense. We’ve never considered it,” said Steve Kumpf, vice-president. Beardsell, Cunningham and Baumbrough also opposed the city setting aside $50,000 for gambling addiction services. The money will come from the increased revenue the city receives from the casino under provincial mandate. Beardsell said the revenue the city receives goes to infrastructure improvements and addiction programs should be funded by extra money from the casino. However, that was not the view of Nicol, who made the motion for $50,000.
“We simply don’t use any of our (existing) $1.7 million for problem gambling and we should,” he said. Construction of the new 30,000-square-foot casino is underway and it’s anticipated to open next fall. “We’re appreciative we have Vernon’s support. We have the ability to grow our business,” said Kumpf.
1 comment:
"We will continue to work to get more." Great quote from the mayor. However I think that he means more remuneration from Nord which he voted in favour of. They will have to wait to get more money from the City and by then we will have been able to vote them out.
Post a Comment