Slots at Kawartha Downs remain closed
Two weeks into renos, reopening date remains unknown
FRASERVILLE — Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs was still closed on Monday, and workers hadn’t been told the date of the reopening — even though the temporary closure was expected to last two weeks, and 14 days had elapsed.
The facility closed for renovations on Oct. 15 — the same day Shorelines Casino Peterborough opened. Ontario Lottery and Gaming said at the time the closure would last about two weeks.
But on Monday, about 30 food and beverage employees arrived at work to find The Downs still closed.
They’d been offered the chance to repaint, redecorate and clean the facility during the shutdown — and that’s what they were still doing on Monday.
Orazio Valente, the general manager of Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs, didn’t know on Monday when exactly the facility might reopen.
“I was told this weekend that the opening will occur in the immediate future,” he wrote in a message to The Examiner.
One union leader was upset to hear about it; he was expecting the facility to be open on Monday.
“This has turned into a real gong show,” said Ted Mansell, business agent for Service Employees International Union Local 2. “It’s amateur hour. I just shake my head.”
Kellie Warren, an 18-year employee at Kawartha Downs and chief steward for SEIU Local 2, scrubbed floors at the Downs on Monday.
She said she doesn’t expect the restaurant to reopen any time soon because employees were told not to order food on Monday (they typically order food on Mondays to last the week).
“I’m not sure what’s going on — I’m just an employee, punching the clock,” she said. “But I’m staying optimistic.”
But OLG spokesman Tony Bitoni wrote in an email to The Examiner Monday that the timeline for the temporary closure had been “approximate” after an agreement in principle was struck between the Downs and the provincial government to keep 150 slot machines at the racetrack.
“We continue to address the requirements needed to imple-
ment the agreement-in-principle,” Bitoni wrote, but did not specify any date for reopening.
The slots operation in Fraserville was expected to close for good when the Shorelines Casino Peterborough opened on Oct. 15 — 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 the Downs temporary closure at that time — employees arrived at work Oct. 15 to find it closed.
Labour Minister Laurie Scott, whose Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock riding includes Fraserville, stated at the time that the closure was meant to allow renovations at the Downs.