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Delta casino approved in democratic process so no need for AG to intervene

Editor: Re: Attorney general doesn’t offer any help to stop Delta casino, Community Comment, July 12 Greg Hoover laments that the attorney general hasn’t offered any help to stop Delta casino.

Editor:

Re: Attorney general doesn’t offer any help to stop Delta casino, Community Comment, July 12

Greg Hoover laments that the attorney general hasn’t offered any help to stop Delta casino. Why did Hoover think David Eby would interfere in this matter?

The majority of Delta council, which was elected by the people of Delta (both North Delta and South Delta), approved the casino project as part of a democratic process, as alluded to in the attorney general’s e-mail response to Hoover.

In a previous letter to the editor, Hoover asked the attorney general to put a casino question on the municipal ballot this October, in South Delta only. The reality is the attorney general was never going to approve a special referendum question, specific to residents of South Delta only. What about the people of North Delta? Are they not residents of Delta too?

Hoover was naïve in expecting the attorney general, the legal representative for the province of B.C., would agree to such an absurd suggestion. It certainly wouldn’t be ethical, and it probably wouldn’t be legal either, for Eby to do that. Sorry, Hoover, you really are not that special.

The attorney general may not be offering any help to stop the Delta casino, but that isn’t Eby’s job.  However, the current attorney general has done more to help stop the illegal activities in B.C. casinos (such as money laundering) than the previous attorney general ever did by shining a light on it. A case in point: the NDP government hired Peter German, a former duty RCMP commissioner, to investigate the allegations of money laundering in B.C. casinos.

The information in German’s report has also been substantiated publicly by Joe Schalke, a former senior investigations director for the Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch. The former Liberal government was in power for 16 years. Why didn’t we get this information from any of them?

The answer to that question should be obvious by now: Show me the money. I very much doubt that since this information has become public knowledge, thanks to the current NDP government, money laundering in B.C. casinos will be continue on the same scale as it was previously allowed under the previous Liberal government.

Later in his column, Hoover also suggests that “if the casino is going to hire 700 people, every restaurant in South Delta will find it even more difficult to hire staff. Tsawwassen Mills already has to bus in workers from other districts.” Perhaps Hoover has been working in the local construction industry for too long, and has not looked for a new job recently in Metro Vancouver.

First of all, not all of the 700 new employees at the new casino in Ladner will be residents of South Delta. To suggest this would also be to suggest that all of the River Rock Casino Resort employees are residents of Richmond. The fact of the matter is that River Rock employees travel from all over Metro Vancouver to get to work as is the case with other workers in the region. That will probably be the case for the new casino in Ladner.

Restaurants in South Delta, including other businesses located in Tsawwassen Mills, often have difficulty in finding and retaining employees for other reasons: 1) the location of the business may not be convenient (too far to travel; high gas prices); 2) low wages, 3) part-time work, with no benefits; 4) employers who may require their employees to be available to work up to seven days per week, including evening shifts and weekends; and 5) competition from other businesses in Metro Vancouver.

Yes, the casino in Ladner will probably be competition for other businesses in South Delta, as well as those throughout Metro Vancouver. That is as it should be. If employers are worried about losing employees to the new casino in Ladner, then they might want to think about the conditions under which their employees are currently working. Are these employers abiding by the Employment Standards Act, WorkSafe, collective agreements, etc.?

Hoover’s comments, which imply that a casino is not needed in Ladner because there are already enough service industry businesses to employ the people of South Delta, is much too simplistic and is just not based in reality.  

Hoover and some of his friends obviously still do not approve of the casino project, but it has been approved by Delta council, and it will be going ahead as planned, petition or no petition. Enough said. Time to move on to another subject, please.

A. Cameron