This is the deal that our City Council failed to negotiate with Lake City Casino ! Will the City of Vernon administration do better ?

http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20070612/documents/a7.pdf
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20061003/documents/a6.pdf
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20050913/documents/a7.pdf

Above are the 3 reports from the City of Vancouver for 2005 - 2006- 2007 concerning the Social Responsibility Fund - Edgewater Casino side agreement in which the City Of Vancouver receives $200,000 EACH YEAR towards a Social Responsibility fund.

Highlights of this Deal:

• On July 20, 2004, as part of the rezoning conditions for the Plaza of Nations, Council accepted a public benefit offering from Edgewater Casino that included a donation of $200,000 annually.
  
• This contribution is to continue for the duration of the permit to operate the casino, which recently has been extended until July 2013.
  
• The legal agreement that was consequently signed by the City and Edgewater Casino on November 1, 2004, indicates that the City has sole discretion to administer the funds.
  
• This contribution is above and beyond the casino revenue that the City receives from the Province as part of the host local government gaming revenue agreement.
  
• At present, the SRF has received a total amount of $500,000, corresponding to the full payments for 2005, 2006 and the first instalment of the 2007 contribution. To date, $25,000 was spent in 2005 as part of the City’s contribution towards a Responsible Gaming Information Centre at Edgewater Casino. Furthermore, on October 3, 2006, Council approved allocations of $25,000 for the City's contribution to the 2006/07 operation of the Responsible Gambling Information Centre at the Edgewater Casino, $25,000 for funding of local awareness and responsible gaming initiatives, and $25,000 towards research, training and staff development. The total amount available in the SRF is currently $400,000. Once the second instalment for 2007 ($100,000) is received in September 2007 the SRF will have $500,000. As $125,000 is annually allocated to the grants program, and no grants have been allocated to date, there will be $375,000 available for grants allocations by September, 2007. Staff will report in the fall about upcoming initiatives related to the other components of the Social Responsibility Fund. The SRF will continue to grow at a rate of $200,000 a year until July 2013.

Public Benefit: https://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20070227/documents/ph1.pdf
The Jan 15, 2007 report from staff re 'to change the maximum number of gaming tables from 60 to 75,* be referred to Public Hearing ' refers to additional benefits obtained in the 2004 agreement as follows:

A range of public benefits were negotiated through the previous rezoning, including the following:
• Social responsibility fund – $200,000/year is paid to the City to mitigate potential negative consequences associated with casino gambling.
• Job creation program – Ten percent of employees hired by the casino must be from targeted groups, with emphasis on the Downtown Eastside area.
• Community use of the performance plaza – Performance space must be made available to community groups for a minimum of seven (7) days a month.

*Proposal
An application has been received from Paragon to amend the CD-1 zoning of this site which currently allows up to a maximum of 600 slot machines and 60 gaming tables. The purpose of the requested amendment is to increase the maximum number of gaming tables permitted from 60 to 75, thereby providing greater flexibility in changing the mix of gaming tables and slot machines. The currently proposed gaming mix includes a maximum of 513 slot machines and a maximum of 70 gaming tables.