With four of his hand-picked executive committee members voting against him, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has vowed to take what appears to be a losing battle for a downtown casino to the city’s voters.
With nine of the members having voted in favor of the proposal, albeit with some 50 conditions, and a yes vote from a skeptical City Council increasingly unlikely, the casino’s most vocal advocate says he will force a referendum, which itself would be problematic given the time line—it wouldn’t go to the polls until next year—and the potential political fallout.
The timing is perhaps the biggest issue. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, which is pushing a casino in Canada’s largest city as the centerpiece of its strategy to privatize gaming in the province, says it wants an answer one way or the other this spring and has already prepared a list of alternate host communities in the metropolitan area. The OLG believes privatization, which includes dismantling Ontario’s racinos and replacing them with upwards of 29 commercial casinos, will add C$1 billion to a depleted provincial treasury. Any lengthy delay in Toronto would impair the agency’s ability to implement it.
The OLG tried at one point to sway the issue with a promise of a hosting fee for the city that was far greater than its established revenue-sharing formula for the rest of the province, but that sparked a storm of protest from other cities and was shot down by Premier Kathleen Wynne.
Mounting opposition to a downtown casino—from councillors, health experts, community organizations, small businesses, academics, religious leaders and an array of current and former political figures—has been frustrating for Mr Ford, who showed up at a union-organized pro-casino rally the morning of the executive committee vote and promptly crashed head-on into a television camera. “It’s either no or yes,” he said afterward. “If it’s a yes, thank you very much, appreciate your support for creating 10,000 good-paying jobs. And if it’s a no, then I guess that becomes an election issue.”
A Toronto Star survey show 25 of the 44 councillors now saying they intend to vote against the casno plan when the issue comes before them next month— two more than the majority required to kill it.
The executive committee’s conditions, which also would require approval by City Council, were first outlined in a report by City Manager Joe Pennachatti. They include a 50-50 revenue split with the OLG with a minimum of $100 million for Toronto, which has already been nixed by Ms Wynne; a cap on gaming space of 135,000 square feet; more convention facilities; and a “social contract” requiring the selected casino operator to implement plans to mitigate problem gambling and other potential negative impacts.
Would-be operators include two leading Las Vegas-based casino corporations: MGM Resorts International, which has partnered with local property developers Cadillac Fairview, and Caesars Entertainment and its Ohio casino partner, businessman Dan Gilbert. Canadian real estate conglomerate Oxford Properties Group has also outlined a proposal. Casino giants Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts have also expressed interest.
