Council says no to a Clearview casino
Clearview Council unanimously voted against hosting an OLG gaming facility in the municipality Monday night, but stopped a couple votes short of opposing such a facility anywhere within the four municipalities that make up the OLG’s Zone C7.
Deputy Mayor Alicia Savage’s motion on the subject, introduced through a notice of motion two weeks ago, included opposition on both of those fronts, but an amendment put forward by Councillor Doug Measures to remove the clause about opposing a casino anywhere in Zone C7 was passed in a 5-4 vote, with Councillors Deb Bronée, Shawn Davidson, Orville Brown and Mayor Ken Ferguson joining Measures in voting for it.
After that Council supported the amended motion en masse, with Savage noting that, though she had hoped for a stronger stand against a casino anywhere in the area, she would still support the motion due to its opposition to a facility within Clearview, as well as its demand, should a casino be built in Zone C7, that all four municipalities and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation take “specific steps to ensure additional resources are made available within the zone to respond to the increased incidents and resulting issues of problem gambling.”
Those issues were the focus of two deputations at the outset of the meeting, from Collingwood physician Dr. Mark Quigg and Stayner minister Rev. Jim Seagram. Both men stressed the damage that gambling addiction can do to families and their greater communities, and reminded Council that 40 per cent of the revenues at OLG casinos come from the 3.4 per cent of the population who are addicted to gambling.
Those sentiments held sway over much of Council, with the first three Councillors to speak on the issue, Thom Paterson, Brent Preston and Robert Walker, indicating they would support Savage’s request for a stand against any gaming facilities in the entire zone.
“This is a cynical and destructive form of taxation,” said Preston. “It will result in a huge amount of money leaving our community and a pittance coming back to help deal with the problems.”
The rest of Council, however, agreed with Measures’ opinion that Clearview should only be making decisions about what happens within its own borders, and that good relationships with its neighbouring communities depend on staying true to that.
“I guarantee you, if we say no, we’ll be out of the picture now and in the future,” said Mayor Ken Ferguson. “And this affects us all. We have to be at the table in the future.”
The Town of Wasaga Beach is the only one of the four municipalities which has voted in favour of hosting a casino. OLG will now entertain proposals from private operators interested in opening a facility in that community.
