The City of Ottawa may not have needed to consult the public over its decision to support the Rideau Carleton Raceway’s bid for new casino-style tables because it already received feedback more than 10 years ago.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes says the city went through the public consultation process when the city was making a different, but failed, request to the province to establish a small casino.
“There was no public consultation on because we’ve already been through this once before,” says Holmes. “I felt that nothing much would have changed, we would have heard from both sides as we did last time.”
Rideau Carleton Raceway representatives asked Mayor Jim Watson for support in their application to the province for a two-year pilot project, which would bring 21 casino-style gaming tables to its facility, late last year.
Currently, the Rideau Carleton Raceway has virtual gaming tables, including games such as blackjack and roulette, in addition to slot machines.
Watson responded to concern over the lack of public consultation, saying the public will still have a chance to comment if the application to the province is successful. If the request is approved, the matter will come before the city’s planning committee to deal with issues of rezoning, at which point public input will be received.
Holmes indicated that most councillors at the March 10 meeting – when city council passed the motion for support of Rideau Carleton Raceway’s bid without public consultation – were concerned about the millions in revenue that the city is currently losing to the Lac-Leamy Casino in Gatineau.
“A majority of cars parked in the parking lot in Gatineau at the casino are Ontario cars,” she says.
If the two-year pilot project is approved by the province, the city predicts the Rideau Carleton Raceway would contribute about $2 million more annually to the city’s treasury. This, in addition to spin-off benefits such as a boost in tourism and employment, is behind the city’s support for the bid.
But some say public consultation was an important missed step.
“As a member of the public, I’d be thinking that I should have been consulted at the beginning of this process, not at the end,” Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans told Postmedia News.
Dallas Smith, a problem-gambling counsellor with the Lifestyle Enrichment for Senior Adults Program at the Centretown Community Health Centre, agrees.
"The more access the individual has to gambling increases their chances of developing problems with gambling,” he says.
The closest Ontario casino for Ottawa residents is the 1000 Islands Charity Casino in Gananoque, a two-hour drive away.
Holmes says only three councillors voted against the motion to go ahead with support for the bid.
Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli was one of the few dissenting voices. His motion to defer the decision for two weeks to commission a report on the social and economic affects of problem gambling was defeated by council.
“I think most councillors felt that this was a minor change,” says Holmes. “It’s not a full-fledged casino by any means – it’s just bringing in a few more tables to the raceway.”