Unclear if Slots will reopen Monday

FRASERVILLE — The two-week, temporary closure of the Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs in Fraserville is set to elapse on Monday, yet workers haven’t been told for sure whether the slot-machine facility will reopen then — an “unacceptable” situation, says a union leader.

Ted Mansell, business agent for Service Employees International Union Local 2, said a reopening “is presumably in the works” for Monday.

“But the employer hasn’t been forthcoming about what’s happening next,” he said.

On Oct. 15, the day that Shorelines Casino Peterborough opened, the Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs closed its doors for renovations that Ontario Lottery and Gaming said would last for about two weeks

They also stated there would be no layoffs.

Kellie Warren, an 18-year employee at Kawartha Downs and chief steward for SEIU Local 2, said she and other food and beverage workers were all offered the chance to repaint and redecorate the Downs during the shutdown.

“We’re happy we still have employment,” she said over the

phone Friday, as she took a break from the renovations.

Still, she hadn’t received word from OLG as of Friday to confirm the Downs would open on schedule Monday — and neither had her boss.

Kawartha Downs general manager Orazio Valente said Friday he was still awaiting confirmation from Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) that the Downs will reopen Monday.

He’s planning for it, he said: “I haven’t heard anything to the contrary.”

But in an email on Friday, OLG spokesman Rui Brum didn’t say Monday was the reopening date.

“I can confirm that Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs will indeed be opening soon, consistent with our statement ten days ago,” he wrote.

Mansell didn’t think that was good enough.

“I think this has been terribly mishandled,” he said in a phone interview. “I put that at the feet of Premier Ford himself.”

The slots operation in Fraserville was expected to close for good when the casino in Peterborough opened — until Premier Doug Ford and his government made an offer to save it on Thanksgiving weekend.

The last scheduled harness races took place at the Downs at the end of September, and by mid-October all of the 500 slot machines were expected to be removed, some destined for Shorelines Casino Peterborough).

That would have left just an empty building with no entertainment — and 30 food and beverage workers jobless.

But then the provincial government offered to allow The Downs to keep 150 slots machines; that was expected to keep the facility open and the workers on the job.

There was no mention of a temporary closure of the Downs at the time the deal was struck. When employees reported to work on Oct. 15 — the day the casino in Peterborough opened — they found the Downs closed.

Labour Minister Laurie Scott, whose Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock riding includes Fraserville, stated one the same day that the closure was meant to allow renovations at the Downs.

There was no further comment available from her Friday.

Scott McFadden, the mayor of Cavan Monaghan Township, didn’t comment on the matter Friday when reached by The Examiner.