North Bay City Council is moving forward with support for a casino.

At a meeting last night in the council chambers and by a vote of 8-3 council moved the project forward.

This despite close to 20 presentations opposed to having a casino in North Bay.

Councillor Dave Mendicino says he’s always been in favour of a casino because of the economic arguments.

“You can’t debate the fact that there are going to be 200 jobs. You can’t debate the fact that it’s going to provide commercial assessment to the tune of $30 million. There’s construction costs of $30 million,” he says.

Scott Robertson voted against says the casino will target local people and the money spent a casino won’t stay here.

“The fact that this is a business that will target marginalized people. People who are vulnerable and addicted to gambling. I don’t see that as a good opportunity to do it on the backs of marginalized people,” he says.

One of the presenters Suzanne Brookes says the social costs of having a casino in North Bay will be measured over the next 2 decades.

“We see all the damage that can ensue from this. There’a committment of 20 years and that’s long passed this council’s interest in the city. We are still going to be suffering from this decision,” she says.

One of the presentations was made by Donna Sinclair. She says council is changing North Bay by supporting a casino and not listening to many of the presentations.

“Those presentations were about being a healthy city, a beautiful city except sitting in a room with no windows in front of a slot machine,” Sinclair says.

There were presentations on several issues including including the expected loss of funds for charitable groups, money that won’t stay in the community and the impact on local businesses from having a casino.

This isn’t final yet though as there’ll be a motion of reconsideration brought forward at a future meeting.

 

 

Filed under: Casino, council