WHAT IS THE CASINO CONTRIBUTING TO OUR FUTURE?
Letter to the Editor published in the Chronicle Journal - Saturday, August 6, 2005
WHAT IS THE CASINO CONTRIBUTING TO OUR FUTURE?
As young people growing up in Thunder Bay, we worry about our future job prospects and the quality of life in this community. Many reports confirm a gradual decline in our population. Many youths are leaving the city, and our friends already planning their fortunes elsewhere. Unless things change, this out-migration will continue.
We have seen a steady decline in economic activities and volunteer services since the Charity Casino opened in August, 2000. A survey of small business owners by the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce revealed 63 per cent said the Casino was impacting detrimentally on the local economy (Chronicle Journal, June 24, 2003). We believe that these numbers would be much higher today.
We have experienced this first hand. After the Casino opened, our Regional Multicultural Youth Council was forced to close a youth drop-in centre we had operated for ten years with bingo funds. We are still struggling, and the future looks bleak. The other 60 charitable organizations of the Thunder Bay Community Bingo Inc. are suffering as well. Total revenues have dropped from a high of over $1,745,000.00 a year before the Casino opened, to $1,233,798.00 last year – a difference of more than half a million dollars. Cumulative loses to date are over $2 million, in spite of adding more bingo sessions. Volunteers are now spending more time fundraising and less time delivering programs and serving clients.
Meanwhile, the Casino has been attracting 3,000 patrons a day. Gross revenues for 2003-04 totalled $58.5 million (Chronicle-Journal, January 21, 2005). This is over $1 million a week for a Casino that does not even provide family entertainment - just gaming tables and slot machines programmed to take money. Worse still, the City gets only 5% from the slots.
Moreover, the Casino will not fund any training programs or activities for children and youth under 18 years old – who are the most affected by gambling parents. On the other hand, the Ontario Trillium Foundation does not compensate local charities for lost bingo revenue with its fixed share in the Casino’s proceeds. Worse still, because of our decreasing population, Thunder Bay and region will not receive anything close to what is being taken out because Trillium funds are distributed per capita. Last year the Northwest region covering nearly two-thirds Ontario’s landmass received $1.7 million –an amount generated by the casino in 11 days.
As we write, several businesses are closing and another bingo hall has gone, leaving more people unemployed, and creating more fundraising hardships for volunteer organizations and the people they serve. There is an increase in social needs and we are seeing more destitute people in the community. Yet since the Casino, charities have even less help from the province than before, and the City will not share its slot-machine windfall!
The idea that the Casino would bring money in to Thunder Bay and benefit local charities has proved false. We do not see bus loads of tourists coming in from outlying communities parked at the Casino. It is mostly local money that used to be supporting local businesses being siphoned out of circulation here and sent down east.
The CIBC survey of economic activity had Thunder Bay dead last on its index of 25 Canadian cities (Chronicle-Journal, May 28, 2005). With so much hard cash being drained out of the system, we can not all blame the smoking bylaw for the local economy going downhill. We will need new industry and businesses that generate $1million a week just to replace what the Casino is taking, before we can even begin to grow.
There are only so many gambling dollars to go around, and sooner or later what is happening in bingo halls will catch up with the Casino. Then what?
Is a cash-sucking building downtown the best investment our civic leaders see for creating employment to keep youths in this city?
Are the 500 jobs at the Casino worth the devastating effects on our whole community?
Do we continue to accept only 5% the city gets from slots out of the millions collected, and wait until economic and social problems get worse?
In our opinion, Thunder Bay can do much better without a Casino located downtown. We are appealing to concerned citizens and parents with children and youth who want to stay and work in this beautiful community to have an open dialogue with our political leaders and find honest answers to the problems created by introducing the casino in the heart of our city.
Naomi Neckoway, Steff Ritch and Sasha Sky (Regional Multicultural Youth Council)