JOHN ROBBINS/Bullet News
In the high-stakes world of casino politics in Ontario, the provincial government holds all of the cards. And so when former TD Bank economist Don Drummond released his long-awaited deficit-cutting recommendations this week, many were surprised to see his commission’s report included a reference to closing one of two Niagara Falls casinos.
But industry insiders say Drummond didn’t just pull that recommendation out of thin air. Nor was Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan speaking off the cuff when during a speech two days earlier he told an audience in Toronto the province will re-evaluate a $345-million “subsidy” paid to the horse-racing industry from the 13-year-old slots-at-race-tracks program.
Sources point to a year-long and yet-to-be-made-public study by Ontario Lottery Gaming Corp. as the likely genesis of Drummond’s recommendations and Duncan’s unexpected announcement.
“The public thinks this just came out of the blue,” one confidential source told Bullet News. “But this tracks back to the OLG study no one else is privy to.”
Last year, the province asked OLG to study its gaming operations across the province. There’s nothing secret about that, but the findings of the study have not been made public. And for good reason, says OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti.
Bitonti says the study isn’t yet complete. Although it should be finished “soon,” Bitonti said there’s no date set for its public release. As far as the Drummond Commission’s recommendation to close one of two Niagara Falls casinos, OLG officials aren’t saying much.
“It’s advice to the government of Ontario… We take our direction from them,” said Bitonti, of the Drummond report recommendations. “For us, it really is business as usual at all of our facilities.”
Bitonti was able to confirm Drummond did consult with senior OLG officials “some time ago” while conducting research for the commission’s recommendations, just as he did with many other government departments and agencies.
Several sources say they believe the province has received at least a draft copy of the OLG study, which likely includes much more detail on the case to be made for closing a casino. All of the Drummond Commissions recommendations – at least for now – are just that. No decisions have yet been made.
But suggestions earlier this year about a possible casino being built in Toronto, coupled with the Drummond Commission recommendations, are making politicians and tourism-industry people in Niagara nervous.
Some, including Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and city Coun. Wayne Thomson, president of Niagara Falls Tourism, say the closing of Casino Niagara, the older and smaller of the two facilities in Niagara, isn’t likely. Diodati points to past promises by Premier Dalton McGuinty in support of two casinos in Niagara Falls.
“The Premier has promised that he would keep Casino Niagara open and I believe him,” Diodati said earlier this week.
If anything, said Diodati, the government needs to invest in the property – not talk about closing it.
“We need Casino Niagara re-branded and given a facelift. McDonald’s and Tim Hortons do it every 10 years. What are we waiting for?
Diodati continued: “You don’t have to look any further than the casino sign facing the USA with letters burned out for months. It needs to be refreshed and rebranded to keep it interesting, exciting and fresh.”
“I don’t believe this will ever come to fruition,” said Thomson, adding he’s baffled by the recommendation to close a casino in the Honeymoon Capital.
Thomson, who was mayor when Casino Niagara opened in the 1990s, said he doesn’t believe the Drummond Commission members did their homework on the gaming issue.
“It really mystifies me how they came up with this recommendation,” said Thomson, adding the province just recently signed a 15-year-lease for the Casino Niagara property.
“It seems like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”
Past promises are one thing. So far, neither McGuinty or his cabinet ministers are saying anything quite so reassuring. On the subject of closing one of the Niagara Falls casinos, Duncan told the Toronto Star that the OLG executives have taken a comprehensive look at all of their operations and “found some serious inefficiencies.”
Still, Duncan told The Star he would have to take a look at the impact on Niagara Falls of implementing the Drummond Commission recommendation.
There’s another wild card in play.
While the province continues to have a monopoly on gambling in Ontario, the McGuinty Liberals, reduced to a minority government last fall, no longer have monopoly control over the Ontario Legislature. So figuring out just what’s coming down the pipe for casinos and race-tracks in Ontario means trying to figure out where the opposition parties stand.
And Ontario Progressive Conservatives aren’t ready to dismiss any of Don Drummond’s recommendations out of hand. Instead, PC leader Tim Hudak has said the government should consider privatizing casinos and let them compete against each other.
PC MPP Peter Shurman, the party’s finance critic, said the same thing during an interview with Bullet News on Thursday.
“Goodness knows that works in places like Las Vegas.”
Shurman said it’s up to the government to make the first move, since it was the Liberals who commissioned the Drummond report. But the report does open up things for debate – and the debate, said Shurman, is this: “Should the government be in a monopolistic position?”
Shurman says he hasn’t seen an OLG study and doesn’t know what exactly led the Drummond Commission to its recommendations.
However, Shurman, too, says he doesn’t believe Drummond – who Shurman holds in high regard – is just throwing out ideas without any information to support his conclusions.
“He, unlike Dalton McGuinty, doesn’t just throw darts at a board,” Shurman said.
Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor has said he can’t see himself supporting a recommendation to close Casino Niagara.
After all, Craitor played a leading role in convincing the province to keep Casino Niagara open after Niagara Fallsview Casino was built.
While he hasn’t changed his mind about the value of having two gaming facilities in Niagara Falls, Craitor said Friday morning he’s not afraid of a privatization debate.
“I’m not opposed to hearing different ideas,” said Craitor, who noted the current model was established by the Progressive Conservatives when they were in power in the 1990s. Craitor said he hasn’t seen the OLG report or any other information that would have led Drummond to the conclusion that one of the casinos in Niagara Falls should be closed.
“I think it’s close to being finalized,” said Craitor. “When it is, the report should be in the public domain.”
He continued: “I haven’t seen anything… the closest I’ve come to seeing anything was Drummond on TV.”
2 Comments on "Secret OLG study behind Drummond recommendation to close Niagara Falls casino, sources say"
The pronvince of Ontario should privitize itself so that the taxpayers , you and I would benefit. Sound familiar
what’s the date of this article?