The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. has let it be known that the City of Toronto will receive what is being dubbed as a 'special deal' relating to city hosting fees if it ends up ultimately being home to a full-blown casino expansion. It didn't take long for Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson to react to news of the sweetheart deal, and he isn't too pleased.
The Globe and Mail ran a story on Friday, March 15 explaining that the hosting fees Toronto is in line to receive are more than double those that have been offered to other Ontario municipalities. The Globe has quoted an 'unnamed player' in the gaming expansion process as saying “Let’s be honest, Toronto is a special case. It’s a different beast.”
The article quoted Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati as saying that he is watching the process "with great interest," and that he doesn't think any jurisdiction should get preferential treatment when it comes to hosting fees.
A follow up article by The Globe on Friday afternoon is about how Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has heard of the preferential treatment that is being proposed for Toronto. He is not happy.
“Unless the city of Ottawa receives the same revenue sharing formula as that being made available to the city of Toronto I will, in the coming months, bring forward a motion to city council recommending that the city of Ottawa withdraw from the OLG’s RFP process,” Watson wrote in a letter sent Friday to OLG Chair Paul Godfrey.
The OLG and the City of Ottawa had worked very closely, in secret regarding Ottawa's gaming expansion, according to multiple reports which surfaced just a few months ago.
“I am not pleased with this at all,” The Globe has quoted Watson as saying. “I think we are one province and every municipality and every resident should be treated equally. Every municipality can come up with the argument that we are special and we are different.”
(With files from The Globe and Mail)
Gee, how does it feel to get
Gee, how does it feel to get screwed by the OLG?Welcome to our world.
Oh how quickly the tide
Oh how quickly the tide changes. Be careful city of Ottawa and Mayor Watson. When you make deals with the devil you may get burned.
What a mess this has
What a mess this has become....Ontario Government and.OLG.. At it,s best....
Finally someone used the word
Finally someone used the word to sum up this whole debacle since the start "secret". Everything about this has been hidden in secrecy and closed doors. I wonder if the OLG and the Liberals could possibly be guilty of something wrong. Secretly !!!!!
When will the NDP and
When will the NDP and Conservatives end this divide and conquer attitude of the liberal government and kick them out of power before the province completely sinks into a point of no return.
Just one more way the
Just one more way the underhanded process is at work. NOW do you see what the horsemen as well as the tracks are up against.They are even putting city against city in order to get what they want. NOW is the time for ALL of Ontario to say " NO " to anything but the SARS program But with a few minor changes.