Rexdale residents want child care in Woodbine development

Locals will need support to benefit from jobs the expansion will bring

Residents of one of Toronto’s least affluent communities are asking city council to make sure a new casino development in their neighbourhood hires locally and provides its workers with a child-care centre. Great Canadian Gaming Corp., the company planning to revamp Woodbine Racetrack, has pledged to meet 21 social and planning conditions mandated by the city, said a staff report at an executive commit- tee meeting Tuesday. But child care wasn’t initially included.

With Mayor John Tory’s support, the executive committee voted to consider adding child care to the conditions. At its meeting later this month, council will make a final decision on that recommendation.

Woodbine Racetrack which is located in northwest Etobicoke and currently hosts slot machines, will become a fullfledged casino, entertainment and hotel complex by 2022.

“At the top of the list for residents was a daycare,” Rosemarie Powell, a Rexdale resident and executive director of Toronto Community Benefits Network, said at the executive committee meeting. “We want to make sure we provide for all residents in Rexdale, especially women who are oftentimes the breadwinners for families.”

Great Canadian Gaming also committed to hiring 40 per cent of its employees through local or social agencies, said the report. Residents want to push this number up to 60 per cent and for employees to be paid a living wage, said Powell.

At least 10 per cent of construction contractors and supplies will be from the local area, the report said. The city, which currently receives $16 million per year from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for Woodbine Racetrack, will get an additional $15 million annual hosting funds starting 2022.

Council approved Woodbine as a casino site in 2015, “despite knowing the vulnerability of this community,” Powell said.

Every neighbourhood within Rexdale is considered to be low or very-low income, she said. Almost three quarters of Rexdale’s population is considered racialized, with family income levels significantly lower than the rest of Toronto.

Rexdale also has a history of promised economic development going bust. In 2013, a Baltimore developer scrapped plans for Woodbine Live!, a massive shopping and enter- tainment complex. Then hopes for new casino jobs were dashed when council, reacting to a public backlash against a proposal for a major downtown waterfront casino, slammed the door on both that option and expanded gaming at Woodbine, only to reconsider again in 2015. Now that Great Canadian Gaming Corp. entered into a 22-year deal with OLG, Rexdale residents want to make sure it benefits them, Powell said.

“A whole generation of young workers, parents and children in this community could benefit from better jobs and good family income if we get this right, or we will miss out,” she said.