The Issue: A Second Casino for Greater Victoria?
When the Great Canadian Casino was initially looking for a new site in Greater Victoria several years ago, both Saanich and Victoria declined to host the facility and so the Casino went to View Royal. But today, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) is proposing a second casino for Greater Victoria and the municipalities of Victoria and Saanich are both receptive to hosting it. A casino would provide a new revenue stream for the host community, but might reduce the net revenues of the View Royal facility and the amount paid to the western municipalities.
The Town of View Royal posted the following notice on its website on April 28, 2016:
"View Royal and the other West Shore communities do not believe there is a market for a second casino. We believe any additional gambling revenue earned by the province from a new facility will be offset by a loss of provincial gambling revenue from View Royal Casino and that municipal revenues from View Royal Casino – shared by seven local communities – will be negatively affected. We think a second casino is a bad idea – for View Royal, for the West shore, for the region – so we are calling on BCLC to drop its plans for a second casino in Greater Victoria.”
The next day an opinion, written View Royal Mayor David Screech, was published in the Victoria Times Colonist.
The 7 municipalities currently receiving revenue from the View Royal Casino are View Royal, Esquimalt, Colwood, Langford, Metchosin, Highlands and Sooke.
According to the Great Canadian Casino, View Royal has been paid $51.8 million, shared with the western municipalities, since 2001. In 2013/14, the latest fiscal year for which figures are available, the Casino paid View Royal almost $4 million (again, to be shared with the other western municipalities).
View Royal also received $146,961 property taxes in 2014 from the Casino.
There is another approach that could be taken by View Royal and its western municipal partners, rather than asserting that a second casino will dilute their current revenues. The municipalities (including Victoria and Saanich) could approach the Great Canadian Casino to enlarge the View Royal facility. Has View Royal considered asking Victoria and Saanich to decline a new casino in their municipalities, with a promise of sharing increased casino revenues from an expanded facility with them? (Note: The objective of BCLC is to increase the total revenues of BCLC. They would need to be persuaded to abandon plans for issuing a second casino licence)
Is it realistic to fight a BCLC proposal for a second casino when the existing municipalities benefiting from current casino revenues don’t want to share it with Victoria and Saanich? Is this just View Royal's municipal self-interest working against the neighbouring municipalities of Victoria and Saanich? Why then wouldn’t both Saanich or Victoria be interested in hosting a second facility in their municipalities?
And finally, how does View Royal's position match up with the Prosperity Project of the South Vancouver Island Economic Development Association, a new regional economic development agency, to which local governments belong. It was formed to eliminate the fragmented municipality v.s. municipality win/lose approach to economic development in the region.
But there is already evidence that municipalities will continue to think in silos, and not as a region, despite new agencies created to overcome the problem of fragmented governance where everybody loses.
InfoGraphic: Great Canadian Gaming Corporation
As Victoria and Saanich have more than double the population of the 7 municipalities that currently share casino revenues (10% of net revenues), it follows that much of the Casino income is derived from Victoria and Saanich gamblers. Why then, shouldn't Saanich and Victoria get a share of those revenues?
- Colin Nielsen
As Victoria and Saanich have more than double the population of the 7 municipalities that currently share casino revenues (10% of net revenues), it follows that much of the Casino income is derived from Victoria and Saanich gamblers. Why then, shouldn't Saanich and Victoria get a share of those revenues?
- Colin Nielsen