Subsidizing the Gambling Business

Column: Playing politics with people’s lives is a risky gamble
PETER CONRADI/Bullet News

It was a feisty Kim Craitor who stepped out of character Friday afternoon to pepper an announcement about the future of Casino Niagara with partisan scorn on provincial Opposition leader Tim Hudak.

The news itself wasn’t really news. We’d known for days that Craitor would stand up and confirm that Casino Niagara had survived the Drummond Report axe. What was left to say? Lots. And not all of it got said in the clearest manner possible.

Craitor, for example, was asked repeatedly when he found out that the government would in fact keep Niagara Falls’ first casino open. At one point he said Thursday, another point it was Wednesday. No matter. But why, he was asked, did he wait until Friday to take some 1,500 workers out of their misery?

“Is anybody upset that I have announced that Casino Niagara is staying open?” he responded at first, going on the offensive in a vain attempt at sidestepping the issue. “I just need to know – is anybody upset over that? OK. So that’s the answer. People wanted an answer and I gave it now. Whenever I gave it, this is the time that I made the decision.”

Nice try. It wasn’t going away that easily. Timing. Who knew what when? Craitor’s presence on the stage alone Friday afternoon - and his total absence from the scene Wednesday when 200 Fort Erie people lost their jobs with the planned closing of the racetrack slots on April 30 – those were queries that kept floating to the surface during the news conference, held in the dingy entrance to the city’s first gaming parlour.

And speaking of dingy, the aging surroundings of the 16-year-old casino provided yet another avenue for questions: What of the future of Casino Niagara? Nice that it will stay open, but will it continue to languish in obscurity and disrepair, the poor cousin to the newer Fallsview Casino Resort?

Craitor said no to that one. Although details were sparse, he said the government and Falls Management Company (FMC), the private consortium that operates both casinos, were looking at ways to inject new life into both properties – especially Casino Niagara. FMC has been accused of abandoning Casino Niagara, hoping it would close, actually, privately claiming there aren’t enough customers to support and maximize profits at two Niagara Falls gambling houses.

“It’s long overdue that we need to invest in this building and rebrand it. There has been a proposal put forward. There has been a proposal sent up to the OLG and now that all of this has been cleared up, we can push it forward.”

Good to hear. Would have been better to hear some particulars.

Craitor said the plan includes more involvement from the private sector, but refused to say more. No one from FMC was anywhere to be seen Friday afternoon, either; they’ve been silent all along through the release of the Drummond Report release and ensuing discussions. They have spoken out against a possible casino in Toronto because that would mean competition for them and possible loss in revenue. They’ve also feared the possibility of Casino Niagara going private and becoming a competitor for Fallsview, an unlikely scenario since FMC holds an exclusive contract to operate both Niagara Falls locations.

Still, with all of this in play – and with them still asking for the government to fund a 7,000-seat entertainment theatre – FMC should have been at the microphone to face some of this. No such luck.

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the provincial agency responsible for gambling in the province and the folks who are behind this week’s upheaval, was also nowhere to be found. Craitor said he told them to make themselves scarce. This was his show.

A couple of city councillors were in the audience; a few members of the DiCienzo family, which owns the building that houses Casino Niagara were there, too, along with Tim Parker and Carolyn Bones, chairman and president of the Niagara Falls Chamber of Commerce, some casino employees and a couple members of the public.

Craitor, who was flayed this week for his handling of the Fort Erie slots closure, was clearly interested in getting some of his own back before the captive gallery. He said repeatedly he was there to bring good news – but before even getting to it he took several digs at Hudak. No politics at play here.

“Tim Hudak said you better implement every single (Drummond Report recommendation) to bring down the deficit,” Craitor said. “I know. I was there when he said it. Close down the casino. That’s what he said. The good news is we’re not going to follow Tim Hudak’s advice.”

(In reality, that’s not what Hudak said. What he said is he agrees with the scale of the cuts Drummond indentified. Hudak said if Liberals aren’t going implement all of the specific cuts in the report, then they need to find other things to make up the difference.)

The Drummond Report, commissioned by the provincial government to find ways to slash the $16-billion deficit, did, of course, recommend shutting down poorly performing venues, like Casino Niagara. Craitor insists that was still being considered right up till the last minute – whether that meant Wednesday or Thursday. Even though Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and OLG chairman Paul Godfrey had let the wind out of Craitor’s sails with separate statements of their own throughout the week, Craitor said he still had to go through with his own communication.

“I could have just sent out a piece of paper, but we decided, let’s do it right here,” he said. “This puts (the casino closing) to rest. All the phone calls, all of the emails. People have even stopped by my house.”

Craitor confirmed the casino would stay open for at least another 13 years, the time remaining in the lease between OLG and Canadian Niagara Hotels. Then he reiterated his criticism of the operators (FMC) for letting the building become rundown.

“It’s long overdue that we need to invest in this building and rebrand it,” he said. “There has been a proposal put forward. It’s not that I don’t want to (release details). There has been a proposal sent up to the OLG and now that all of this has been cleared up, we can push it forward.”

Which will be of cold comfort to the people a few minutes down the road in Fort Erie, still reeling from Wednesday’s news, and no doubt wondering why no one is similarly pushing forward proposals to save their jobs and, possibly, the racetrack itself.

Only 48 hours old, the raw spectre of the jobs losses and the impact in the small community, not to mention the apparent inconsistency with the decision-making, haunted Craitor. He struggled at times to explain why Casino Niagara stayed open and Fort Erie slots did not. What was the difference? He pointed out that Liberal MPPs were closing shops in their own ridings – as if that was somehow meant to mitigate the local damage.

“Customers,” he said finally. “There aren’t enough people going to the slots to sustain it. It just couldn’t continue. It comes down to that. Not enough customers.” That and ancillary investment. Niagara Falls business has pumped more than $5 billion in construction and development into the area following Casino Niagara’s opening. How, he said, could the government rip that out now?

“Here, there has been $5.2 billion in investment,” Craitor said. “I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s the difference.”

Fort Erie would argue it is no different in their community save perhaps the scale.

A few hours earlier Hudak, just as invisible as anyone on the fateful Wednesday in Fort Erie, popped up to tour a Niagara Falls grocery store hours before Craitor crept into the spotlight. He was artful as ever about providing specifics for a Conservative plan on saving jobs in his old stomping ground. Asked directly if he believes there’s anything he and his party can do to block the minority Liberal government from following through with the closure, Hudak said: “Well, it’s a government decision, but it’s the wrong decision.”

Hudak went on to suggest that private enterprise be invited to operate the slots if government is not interested.

“Surely there’s got to be a better way than just going down there… and saying it’s closing. If the government says it can’t run (the slots)… why don’t you give somebody else a shot at it? Why not have a private-sector operator run the facility?”

That’s what everyone is asking these days. Even Craitor.

“I agree. We should be trying to see if anyone is interested. I plan work on that.”

We’ll see how far it gets against the powerful OLG, which clearly wants to eliminate all competition for its big casinos. However, when the dust settled, we could take comfort in seeing Craitor teeing off on his own government again. What started an hour earlier as a personality lapse was a blip, and all was right with the world again.

Except not in Fort Erie, where we haven’t heard the last of this.