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O awa East News O awa South News O awa West News Should have pursued two Nepean-Barrhaven News casinos earlier: mayor The Renfrew Mercury Proudly serving the community
August 29, 2013 | 48 pages
OttawaCommunityNews.com
Laura Mueller
The Ottawa Folk Festival has announced changes to the lineup. – Page 3
sports
Local atheletes return from Canadian youth championships in B.C. – Page 12
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laura.mueller@metroland.com
News - If he could do it differently, Mayor Jim Watson says he would have worked harder to protect slots at the raceway from the start while still securing a secondary casino site in Ottawa. “We should have specifically asked for preferential consideration as part of the condition to have a satellite (gaming facility) at (Rideau Carleton Raceway),” Watson said. “I think if we had gotten that up front, a lot of this debate would have been moot.” Last year, the mayor was very vocal about his vision for an urban or downtown casino that could compete with Lac-Leamy in Gatineau and repatriate gambling revenue lost to Quebec. Last week, the finance and economic development committee he chairs approved a very different vision: the same number of slot machines that are already in place at the Rideau Carleton Raceway, plus the addition of 21 gaming tables council had previously approved as a pilot project. “I don’t think this has been a particularly smooth process and I’ll take the blame for that,” Watson said in a rare moment of candor after the Aug. 26 vote. bad news
Plasco`s waste-to-energy plant gets an extension from the city. – Page 21
A lack of clarity from the province probably didn’t help, Watson said, “but at the end of the day, I’ll wear it,” he said. “This process has not been our council or the OLG’s finest hour.” Watson said the compromise was a way for the city to ensure it has same gaming capacity – and revenue – but in a way that’s in line with “the general parameters of acceptance (of) our community.” Councillors voted on the issue without the benefit of an economic analysis comparing the financial benefit to the city of expanding gambling at the raceway, or at two sites as the city had originally intended to debate that day. See VOTE, page 6
Nevil Hunt/Metroland
Orange crush Carleton University’s Tyson Hinz, right, gets run down by Syracuse guard Tyler Ennis during a pre-season exhibition game at the Canadian Tire Centre on Aug. 23. Hinz led Carleton in scoring with 16 points but Syracuse squeaked out a 69-65 win in overtime.