Negotiations Started Between Tribe and Ontario

NDP Leader Howard Hampton says that the Ontario Government has been discriminating against them by not allowing them to offer card tables. He is calling for negotiations to restart so that they can discuss the idea that gambling revenues need to be shared with aboriginal communities, since they are not currently allowed to expand.

Hampton says that having table games is one of the best things you can do for your casino in that they bring in “significant” revenue as well as employment. They say that considering the fact that they currently have a 75% unemployment rating in their community, which revenue can help considerably.

Chief Ken Skead of the Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation is planning on being at the Ontario Legislature on Tuesday so that he can talk candidly to them about allowing the tribe to bring in the table games, and thus allow them to expand. As other casinos have already been allowed to expand, and they were awarded their slots licenses at the same time as the Golden Eagle Charitable Casino, it can only be assumed that they are not getting the same treatment as the other casinos.

The province has offered to share 42.5 billion with the aboriginal chiefs, but they declined the offer as it would have forced them to drop any and all lawsuits that the tribes had over the taxes that they are currently paying to the government from Casino Rama. The province currently takes 20% of their revenues in what is called a “win tax” and the tribes refuse to drop their suits pertaining to it.

Hampton’s problem is that he feels the issues are two separate ones and the government seems to be lopping them in together. The province can give the slots casino their table games while the issues that still remain over the tax are resolved. The government meanwhile says that the province has been negotiating new revenue sharing agreements with the tribe and since then they have put everything else on hold.


 

Back to December 2007 Archive.