A Bad Bet
So why is the casino proposal running into such heavy and sudden resistence?
I’ll go with a theory expressed by an insightful obeserver of the city scene:
Gambling expansion was justified when a big chunk of change was ‘guaranteed’ to go for good and worthy causes, in particular the arts. And in return the arts community representatives were there to testify in favour of the proposals to expand gambling in the city.
And they were suckered. When the Province ran into financial pressures, the arts take of the kitty was cut, and grants dried up. The legislators were not at all polite about it either.
So now … well, when it comes to people who know how to communicate, connect and articulate, you really don’t want to piss them off. And that looks to be pretty much what has happened.
Why would the arts community have any right to funding in the first place?
Do they receive a “cut” from other “vices” such as cigarette sales or alcohol sales?
Sets a dangerous precedent when you have to “buy-off” community activists.
But wait – they already do that in the DTES.
Well, Ron, if we can “buy off” corporate sport team operators by paying $500 million for a stadium roof that be opened, why shouldn’t arts get some cash?
Firstly, the casino would be building its building using its own money. A ground lease payment (for the bare land) would be paid to PavCo. While PavCo appears to have budgeted for that lease payment in paying for the roof, PavCo and casino revenues are not otherwise related. If the casino isn’t built, PavCo would likely enter a ground lease with a developer for condos (whose residents would conplain about the noise from concerts and other events).
The fact that arts groups raise a stick is bizarre to me. I could see if mental health advocates protested for gambling funding, but how do arts groups have a right to gambling revenues? How did arts group approval because necessary? Do they get a cut of cigarette taxes or liquor taxes too? Those are also addictive vices. What’s the connection?
The equivalent would be protestors protesting rezoning for the new Telus headquarters if the City does not allocate a share of property taxes to a support, say, the SPCA.
*****
BTW – WRT BC Place Stadium – Pre-renovations (pre-Whitecaps) the stadium was booked for 200 days a year, with only 20 of those bookings for BC Lions games. The rest of the time it’s exhibition space that is well used by the public (home show, boat show, auto show, outdoors show, midway, concerts, motorcross, Vancouver marathon, Vancouver Sun Run, Run for the Cure).
http://www.querycat.com/question/0f6fe0ac5006ac5f4781bb574ab69a47
And remember that the Whitecaps wanted to build their own stadium – but were blocked by the City – first on the False Creek Flats (formerly proposed St. Paul’s site), then on the Downtown Waterfront. BC Place is probably “second best” for them since it’s so big. Rogers Arena is privately owned.
The VAG replacement is projected to cost $350 million.
The Province of BC has already pitched in $50 million so far.
http://www.vanmag.com/News_and_Features/Urban_Fix/The_Vancouver_Art_Gallerys_350_Million_Plan?page=0%2C
Come to think of it- I have an idea for a great amenity that the Vancouver Art Gallery could provide at its new Larwill Park site as a condition of City approval.
It would be the perfect place for a downtown bike garage.
Stadium Station can be connected to the site using the filled-in pedestrian tunnel under Beatty Steeet. Transit riders could park their bikes there and there would be easy access to the Dunsmuir bike lane. It’s also close to Rogers Arena and BC Place, cultural venues, VCC, the Public Libarary, government offices and even Gastown for the bohemian types.
Like it or not, casino revenue has become general revenue for the city and province. And if we can’t find another commercial enterprise for the land, and we build condos, the city will make less on residential taxes vs commercial taxes.
If we can’t pass this casino, IMO the CoV will have decide to limit expansion of services it can provide, or increase taxes.
This is from the georgia straight. I have a distinct feeling that other muni’s have a vested interest in not seeing this pass….
…….
“Coquitlam’s Boulevard Casino, which has over 1,000 slot machines and 60 gambling tables, puts about $9 million a year in the city’s coffers, the mayor said.
“That pays for a lot of services in Coquitlam,” Stewart said. “Here I am, not particularly a gambling advocate, and yet if there are going to be casinos and some communities are going to get the revenue, then I do want Coquitlam to get its share of those revenues.””
http://www.straight.com/article-377486/vancouver/politicos-fear-casino-impact
One has to wonder, however, how much casinos will increase the need for government services, including city police and many of those service organizations such as women’s centres that saw their share of the casino revenue cut, affecting their services. But then, I’m not sure I like the way government becomes beholden to these sorts of interests more than it is to its own citizenry – it’s the same with the feds and the oil sands. Suddenly, government finds itself addicted to the cash, in the federal government’s case having slashed corporate and upper-bracket income taxes significantly and come to rely increasingly on dirty money, and in the case of local governments simply grasping at anything at all aside from property taxes and user fees to pay for the increasing costs of those downloaded services from upper levels of government.
If the above statement seems unclear, the question I’m rying to ask is: is it worth it to have slightly lower taxes if we’re beholden to dirty money and their interests?
@ tessa, there have been some high profile issues recently with gaming (like the loan shark murder in richmond), but richmond is not rushing to close river rock. IIRC they are building an new hotel on top of the park and ride as we speak.
IMO, i hope that ongoing regulation and enforcement will keep problem issues to a low level.
but then again, i’m not dogmatically attached to building this casino. if paragon is rejected, then we will have to ask ourselves what the CoV will do with less-than-projected revenues, raise taxes or limit growth of services.
if it is rejected, IMO either another proponent will apply for a casino somewhere else in NEFC by the stadia. if not, then i suspect richmond/river rock will apply for the quota of gaming activity from paragon’s bid.
Vancouver should not be counting on the revenues from this casino. If they are, then they’re as stupid as PavCo for counting their chickens before they’ve hatched.
@Tessa
If it’s any consolation, alberta is more beholden to the gaming industry than to oil sands royalties, if provincial revenue is a marker….
“Oilsands revenue is expected to drop to about $1 billion this year because of the global recession, but gambling revenue will remain steady at about $1.5 billion, according to the forecasts.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2009/04/27/cgy-alberta-gambling-revenues.html
@ Sean
Again, if we decline paragon, there will be other ways to raise funds for the roof, like gaming royalties from paragon’s quota going to other sites. or increasing taxes.
@mezzanine
hah that story was written just for this conversation it seems. I don’t think that’s a long-term trend, however.
And yes, you are right, that is one less item on the budget, but I think overall it’s also more money going towards other taxpayers and likely less drain on some city services, such as police. It’s been studied that when Wal Mart comes to small towns, they actually often cause the municipalities to lose more tax revenue than they gain from having the store there, yet when they open up they still make grandiose claims baseed on the amount of taxes they pay, representing that as an increase. Maybe the effect wouldn’t be so dramatic in this case and in a city like Vancouver, but we have to keep in mind that none of these proposals happen in a vacuum – everything affects everything else in the city.
The amount of revenue from the new casino is unknown. The projections that are bandied about are based on assumptions that the consultants will not stand behind. Some of these are outlined in the following article http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/benefits-of-proposed-bc-casino-dont-add-up/article1927773/
As an angel investor I see a lot of business plans many of which have puffed up numbers for revenue and penetration. One has to really push hard on all the numbers and assumptions to make sure that they aren’t just wishful thinking. My sense is that the City is not so good at these kinds of analyses and is easily hoodwinked by developers c.f. Olympic Village.
The casino is another business looking for a place to operate in Vancouver.
The mayor was recently seen at a press conference sitting at the same table as the CEO of Telus announcing a new headquarters building in downtown Vancouver.
Does that mean the City is beholden to Telus? (a lot of people do not like Telus)
The rezoning hasn’t even been approved!!
For the past 20 years, have we been beholden to Sunday shopping?