The City of Ottawa has
toyed with the idea of a casino for many years. As past city officials
squandered their time with endless discussions, our neighbours in Gatineau
wasted no time in building a casino which routinely sees more Ontario than
Quebec licence plates in its parking lot. Now that the Government of Ontario is
offering Ottawa another opportunity to build a casino, let’s hope our locally
elected officials make the decision on location for the right reasons.
While I can appreciate
Mayor Watson’s reasons for supporting a casino at the Rideau Carleton Raceway,
the decision on location should not be motivated by the concerns of the harness
horse racing business. The casino needs to be easily accessible to both
residents and tourists. With a new convention center and most of the hotel
accommodations in the city core, the main criteria for location of the casino should
focus on ease of access.
As a resident of
Orleans, the casino in Hull would be 12 km’s closer than Rideau-Carleton. That
is the same additional distance a visitor would have to travel if they were
staying at the Lord Elgin Hotel. The raceway is simply too far for both
residents and tourists. The rationale behind building the current arena
(Scotiabank Place) in Kanata still has people questioning the wisdom of that
decision. Let’s not repeat that mistake.
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