Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop is pressing the province to ensure Casino Rama remains in operation past 2011 – the year its license comes up for renewal.
“We’re not taking it for granted,” Dunlop said recently. “We want to lobby.”
Dunlop has urged Aboriginal Affairs Minister and Government House Leader Michael Bryant to weigh in on the matter.
While acknowledging the license is under the jurisdiction of Ontario’s lottery and gaming agency, Dunlop urged Bryant to support its renewal given his dealings with First Nation issues.
“We just lost 700 jobs with the closing of the Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia,” Dunlop told the legislature in late June. “So this becomes – from my perspective, from the government’s perspective and I hope from the perspective of all citizens of Ontario – a very high priority for one community.”
Concerns over the casino’s future emerged in recent years following a meeting between then-lottery and gaming head Duncan Brown and band officials.
At the time, Chief Sharon Stinson Henry said Brown had suggested the license might not be renewed, an allegation the provincial agency denied.
Bryant in recent discussions with Dunlop said his ministry had to date focused largely on a revamped revenue sharing agreement for First Nation bands benefiting from Casino Rama’s operation.
The government would likely begin to address the license issue in the fall, he said.
“I think his answers were fairly responsible,” Dunlop said of the response. “In the end, I think the cabinet would have the final decision. I just want to get out in front of this now.”
The issue was also raised during a forum hosted by chief and council in late May.
Ontario Lottery and Gaming CEO Kelly McDougald in a presentation said her agency was “proud of the facility and wants it to continue.”
She said a “new relationship”– agreeable to the local band, the province and the gaming corporation – was needed to “ensure that Casino Rama will continue to be a successful enterprise many years from now.”
Chief Sharon Stinson Henry echoed those sentiments.
“The continued success of Casino Rama and these relationships are essential for the long-term growth and economic well being of (the local native community) and the region,” she said.
