A day after the deputy mayor suggested gambling proceeds could help pay for Rob Ford’s subway, Scarborough councillors voted in favour of bringing a casino to Toronto.
At a meeting of Scarborough Community Council on Tuesday, February 14, the local reps approved a motion affirming their support, in principle, for building a casino in the city. While only the province has the power to give a casino the go-ahead, the vote spearheaded by Ford’s council allies Michael Thompson and Michelle Berardinetti signals that Scarborough councillors are open to the idea.
“The idea is to make sure people understand that Toronto is actually open for business,” says Thompson, who also chairs the Economic Development Committee. “We have an unemployment rate just under 10 per cent, which is higher than the national average. The job opportunities [from a casino] are absolutely enormous.”
Thompson says he’s not sure how much money a gaming house would bring the city, but he estimates that several gambling establishments could create up to 30,000 high-paid jobs.
The Scarborough vote came after public musings by deputy mayor Doug Holyday.
“I for one have never been supportive of casinos, but it’s in the wind here in Toronto,” Holyday said Monday at a meeting of the mayor’s executive committee. “There will be hundreds of millions of dollars, enough to float a lot of money for public transit.”
Gordon Chong, Rob Ford’s point man on the Sheppard project, says that even with major contributions from the private sector, the city would be $900 million short of the roughly $3.7 billion needed to build the extension. Critics say the shortfall is actually much larger.
Thompson denied that his motion was tied directly to the stalled Sheppard project, which was sidelined by council’s decision last week to pursue surface rail. “We have a lot of priorities in the city,” he said. “Transit is certainly a big one, but so is daycare, so is housing.”
Toronto has debated casinos many times over the years, but speculation is ramped up in the wake of the province’s decision this month to close Ontario Place. Former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory has been appointed to figure out what to do with the waterfront attraction, and he hasn’t ruled out converting it to a casino.
But even as Scarborough councillors were voting for a casino, downtown councillors were taking steps to make sure blackjack dealers and slot machines never make it to the lakeshore. Members of the Toronto and East York community council, whose jurisdiction includes Ontario Place, voted unanimously Tuesday to ask city staff to prepare a report on zoning bylaws that could prevent gaming establishments from setting up shop downtown.
“The costs of casinos outweigh the benefits,” says Councillor Adam Vaughan, who put forward the motion. “The impact on small businesses, the social costs, the cost of law enforcement and the damage they do to their host communities are so significant that to even contemplate putting a casino in any neighbourhood I represent is absolutely unacceptable.”
Vaughan says the bulk of proceeds from a casino would go to the private sector and the province. He would prefer new revenue sources that don’t come with hefty social costs attached, like a hotel tax or a portion of the federal sales tax.
bens@nowtoronto.com
