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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, April 12, 2012 · 10 Mayor invites public to comment on gaming Continued from page 9 Bingo at 483 Speers Rd., to offer electronic bingo? Delta operates at seven locations: Oakville, Mississauga, Pickering, Niagara Falls, Laurel, Maryland, and two in Toronto. If we permit `e-bingo' at the Delta in Oakville will it lead to other forms of video terminal gambling such as `VLTs' (Video Lottery Terminals) and devices that resemble video slot machines? And if it did, would those forms of gambling be okay in Oakville? Council faces these questions and others at its next regular meeting, Monday at 7 p.m. As mayor, one of my duties is to `uphold and promote the purposes of the municipality' and only council determines what those are. Last year, council agreed to Stage One of a process to lead to electronic gambling games under the auspices of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). In Stage One, council agreed to allow electronic gaming based on a representation from the OLG that council would have final say over any new games they might want to introduce and that in any case, games such as VLTs or slots would not be introduced. This tentative approval by council has now brought us to Stage Two, where the actual contract between the Town and the OLG is before council. In their proposed contract, the OLG has refused to let Oakville council have final say on the question of what form or nature of games might be allowed in the future. The OLG also has refused to give council a guarantee in the contract that slots and VLTs would never be introduced in Oakville. The OLG has offered instead a `comfort letter' to that effect, but the language of their proposed contract is stark and absolute in holding that they have the only say. The OLG also requires that the Town be bound for 16 years by the contract, while giving itself a 90-day exit clause. I believe that this is an unacceptably on-sided clause. Now, the OLG and Delta Bingo have alarmed many of the Oakville charities who benefit from payments from Delta Bingo from their proceeds. The charities have expressed their alarm to council and me in numerous e-mails demanding to know why we have not hurried to sign the OLG contract. The reason for our delay has been repeated, unsuccessful discussions with the OLG to get them to include the safeguards they promised us. When council required control of the introduction of any new forms of gaming we did so believing that you, as an Oakville resident, would expect and want us to do that. Now, with the OLG and the local charities asking us to put aside our requirement for maintaining control of future forms of gaming, it is time for you to be heard. When Oakville residents voted on gambling in a referendum years ago, they voted against gambling. It was not a binding referendum, but it is the only expression of public opinion on the subject we have so far. Council and I pride ourselves on our public consultation and the engagement of Oakville residents like you in civic affairs. Please e-mail me at oakvillemayor@gmail.com to let me know your views. The Canadian Club of Halton Peel will host awardwinning biographer and historian Charlotte Gray at a dinner at the Oakville Conference Centre, 2515 Wyecroft Rd., on Thursday, April 19. Born in Sheffield, England and educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Gray has become one of Canada's best-known writers of literary non-fiction. The latest of her eight books, Gold Diggers, Striking It Rich in the Klondike, will be the focus of her remarks on April 19. Gray is a member of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has received five honourary doctorates. Registration for the event begins at 6 p.m., with the event itself beginning at 7 p.m. Members may attend for $35, non-members for $45 and students for $15. For more information, e-mail bwylie@globalserve. net. Historian speaks to Canadian Club