Cavan Monaghan receives $806,572 in gambling revenue

Cavan Monaghan Township has received its latest quarterly payment from Ontario Lottery and Gaming.

The municipality received $806,572 for hosting Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs.

This brings the community’s total for hosting the gaming centre to $56.1 million since November 1999.

However, that will soon end. Owner Great Canadian Gaming has chosen to move its Shorelines slots facility into Peterborough as part of a full-scale casino set to open next year.

Once that happens, the city will receive quarterly payments, part of the municipality contribution agreement and based on an escalating scale used at all gaming sites in the province.

“OLG gaming site revenue provided to host communities help invest in infrastructure projects and important local programs and services which benefit Ontario families,” stated Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal in an OLG release. “Along with supporting local development, these funds directly benefit Ontario’s public services such as health care and education.”

OLG contributes $2 billion annually to the province. In fiscal 2017-18, that will also include $115 million for the Trillium Fund and $38 million to fund gambling addiction research, treatment and prevention.

The Shorelines casino in Peterborough will be built at Crawford Dr. and The Parkway, with a $17-million hotel as part of the complex.

The casino, in the works for years, is expected to hire 120 employees as well as maintain the 150 currently working at the Cavan Monaghan facility.

It has had opposition from No Casino Peterborough and other opponents. In May, activist Roy Brady filed an application for a court order to quash the 2015 rezoning of the casino site, which was found have been made behind closed doors in a contravention of the Municipal Act by an investigator.

The application is still before the courts.