City not giving up on casino process

The City of Niagara Falls will explore “all available legal avenues” to cause Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation to end the “flawed” process of selecting new operators for Fallsview Casino and Casino Niagara.

Council held a special meeting Thursday to approve such a resolution, which also calls for the municipality to “persuade” OLG to “honour the terms and spirit” of the original agreements between the city and OLG.”

On the recommendation of Niagara Regional Chair Alan Caslin, the resolution will also be circulated to regional council and all other Niagara municipalities for consideration and support.

The city said it was “promised” the casino (s) in Niagara Falls would be “operated as drivers of the local economy.”

According to the city’s resolution, having the two casinos as part of OLG’s modernization framework should allow the properties to “realize their true, full potential to become compelling and integral elements in attracting tourists to the city.”

To that end, and to ensure the casinos retain their role as a “vital local and regional employer,” council, on May 10, 2016, passed a resolution requesting the municipality play a “significant role” in structuring the request for pre-qualifications and request for proposals.

Council also passed a resolution on Oct. 25, 2016, requesting the RFPQ be postponed until the city’s goals and objectives are incorporated, and the city is “treated as key partners in the process.”

Caslin reminded council Thursday that regional council, in November 2016, voted to request the province postpone the process until “the goals of sustainable economic benefits, creating jobs and acting as a catalyst for economic development for the region and the city were added to providing revenues to the province, just like the 1996 original RFP.”

Caslin said he and Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati have worked with many partners during the past year, including MPP Wayne Gates, residents and business owners, to raise their concerns.

“As Niagara’s largest employer, with over 4,000 employees and a payroll in excess of $220 million, it is critical that we maintain these jobs in Niagara,” said Caslin. “There is broad support across Niagara demanding that the RFP process consider the importance of these jobs.”

This past April, Caslin and Diodati sent a joint letter to Finance Minister Charles Sousa asking the RFP be terminated, a request the province declined.

Despite that, some Niagara politicians won’t give up.

They have held rallies in front of Fallsview Casino and at Queen’s Park, as well as a town hall style meeting at the Gale Centre, to voice their concerns about the process.

Some Niagara politicians continue to tout a third-party study which questions whether the province’s plan for gaming modernization, including an RFP to select new operators for its two Niagara casinos, could result in up to 1,400 job losses in the region.

The study, commissioned by the city through its business development office last year, also questioned whether both casinos will continue to operate following modernization.

Some Niagara politicians feel the province’s goal of maximizing provincial revenue would undermine the original objectives of Casino Niagara when it opened in 1996, including job creation and economic development for the city.

Diodati said the city was also “assured” by OLG it would be part of the process for developing an RFP, which hasn’t materialized.

Coun. Wayne Thomson said at one point there were 5,500 jobs at the casino.

“I was shocked a few years ago to hear, ‘well, now they have 4,500 jobs,’ and now there’s a possibility of losing another 1,400 jobs? This is a direct negative impact on what we are all about. We’re going to fight like hell to make sure that we’re treated fairly here.”

Coun. Vince Kerrio said the ongoing process is not what Niagara Falls residents “signed on for” when they voted for a casino in a referendum during the 1990s.

“It was based then on the opportunity of jobs, it was based on other opportunities, it was based on the casino being a catalyst for other things,” he said.

“All of a sudden now we’ve got a huge change? Now it’s just about the money? It just doesn’t seem fair that someone could come along now and change the rules of the game, and just throw away what we agreed to in the beginning, in order to accept the casino in our city in the first place.”

OLG expects to announce the successful service provider in the summer of 2018.

A press release issued in April stated there will be no further communication by OLG about the request process until a winner is announced.

OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti said Thursday they can’t offer comment “until we receive and have the opportunity to review the final resolution put forth by council.”

The city’s two casinos are currently operated by Falls Management Group on OLG’s behalf.

Last year, OLG notified the company it would not extend its contract past its current term, which ends July 10, 2019.