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Toronto Star: Toronto casino near defeat, vote count shows

Twenty-three votes are needed to win at the 45-member council. With at least a month before decision day, 21 councillors have now declared that they will definitely vote No on a casino downtown. Two other councillors say they are leaning to the No side — one of them, Ana Bailao, strongly.

Even if two of those 23 councillors change their minds, the No side is still probably safe, barring some major unexpected development. Some 15 other councillors are publicly undecided, including two, Glenn De Baeremaeker and Anthony Perruzza, who almost always vote with the left. The casino would still go down to defeat if the undecideds broke 13-2 in its favour, which is highly unlikely.

Put another way: even if Ainslie and Bailao end up voting for a casino, the Yes side could only win the vote by winning the 15 undecideds by a shocking 14-1 margin.

Ford cannot even count on his usual allies to rally to the cause: seven members of his 13-member executive committee are among the undecideds. They include Ford’s deputy mayor, Doug Holyday, who has said that he is not generally a supporter of casinos and is “reluctant” to put one downtown.

Another member of Ford’s executive, conservative Denzil Minnan-Wong, announced Tuesday that he is firmly in the No camp. And yet another member, Paul Ainslie, said on Twitter that he is “more anti than pro casino” — after tweeting a stream of anti-casino messages and articles, most recently “Nun steals $$ from Catholic Church, goes to casino.”
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voxpopulicosmicum said:
But I still think Paul Godfrey should have been forced to mortgage his future generations to pay back the original cost to the public purse, in addition to the $25mm the Jays paid in 2004.
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I'm sorry, you had a better offer back then to take the annual multi million dollar losing SkyDome sink hole off the public purse?

Don't shoot the messenger. Godfrey did exactly what he was paid to do.
 
CN Tower said:
I'm sorry, you had a better offer back then to take the annual multi million dollar losing SkyDome sink hole off the public purse?

Don't shoot the messenger. Godfrey did exactly what he was paid to do.
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Make me and you, pay for his pet project? I haven't even been inside Skydome, so why did I have to pay for it? If private companies wanted it, they should have paid for it. I'm still amazed that Godfrey got away with that s**t. (and still pissed off when I think about it) Yes, Godfrey got us into it and he should have paid a steep price but nobody is accountable for anything these days. (in both the public & private sectors) It amazes me that he is running the show at OLG and many other ways. I find that deplorable but I guess that's how things work when one is well connected to the people in power.
 
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johnwood said:
looks like a casino won't get built but it will get built somewhere in the gta. :cool:
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Expect all the major players to back out if Toronto proper isn't the casino location. Sands, Caesar's and MGM aren't going to build a casino in Markham. Heck, Markham itself rejected the idea no? Which GTA municipality was receptive? This is going to go down as yet another huge Rob Ford defeat where he manages to always play on the losing team.
 
Yes, Markham has said no, but it can be re-debated. Vaughan is still open. I believe Hamilton has also said no.
 
MetroMan said:
Expect all the major players to back out if Toronto proper isn't the casino location. Sands, Caesar's and MGM aren't going to build a casino in Markham.
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I dont know about that, any of them would love to locate a major casino in Mississauga...also if Markham says yes, MGM/Cadillac Fairview will build at Buttonville
 
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MetroMan said:
Expect all the major players to back out if Toronto proper isn't the casino location. Sands, Caesar's and MGM aren't going to build a casino in Markham. Heck, Markham itself rejected the idea no? Which GTA municipality was receptive? This is going to go down as yet another huge Rob Ford defeat where he manages to always play on the losing team.
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How does Ford always seem to come down of the side of the majority of Torontonians, but opposite that of Council. It will be hard for the left to campaign that Ford was so incompetant because he couldn't control us idiots. Since the public only pays attention to the Mayoralty election and simply votes for their Councillor based on name recognition - they are too busy to study their Councillors views on any issue since it is not as readily available as the Mayoralty info - I anticiapate that we may be in this same situation in 2 years.
 
On the side of the majority? The report showed 71% against the casino, so he's not on the side of the majority.
 
A majority *ahem* plurality elected him Mayor, and a near-majority (generically) approves of the job he's doing; therefore, they approve of every square inch of his agenda in every bleeping detail. That's the logic here.
 
Toronto casino: Mayor Rob Ford wants to limit speaking time at casino debate
By Staff Torstar News Service

Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee meeting marks a crucial point in the debate over a downtown casino-resort and conference centre where the public has a chance to weigh in — but all who registered to speak may not get the chance.

A motion will be presented by Ford that would avoid the kind of deputation marathon seen at the 2012 budget meetings by limiting speaking time to three minutes and ending public deputations Monday at 8 p.m. sharp. The committee will reconvene Tuesday to question staff on the report before deciding whether to put the issue on hold or endorse it to city council.

The meeting concerns city manager Joe Pennachetti’s report, which lists 43 conditions council could impose on the potential deal.

Chief among the conditions is a call for at least $100 million in hosting fees. The report also specifies that the facility, envisioned as a convention centre combined with a casino resort, would generate about 10,000 net new jobs and 7,000 temporary construction jobs. It does not directly address the contention of critics that this would be offset by job losses at neighbouring businesses.

Mayor Ford and Councillor Doug Ford, who have been championing casinos, discussed it Sunday on their weekly Newstalk 1010 radio show. Brantford Mayor Chris Friel, a guest on the show, was generally supportive of the idea of a casino but he cautioned the brothers on the city’s hosting fee hopes.

“I think that your expectations for the hosting fees are way beyond what’s reasonable. I don’t think the OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.) or the province can make that commitment,†said Friel.

In response the Ford brothers called for hard negotiating tactics with OLG and the province, and emphasized a minimum of $100 million.

“What we should do is put an offer on the table because the province is just going to delay it and delay it and delay it,†the mayor said on the show.

There is concern that not enough information on the fee is available for Monday’s meeting.

“There’s been some discussion about deferral pending OLG divulging what their formula is and what the money part of it is,†Councillor Peter Milczyn, a member of the executive committee, said Thursday.

The OLG has only said it will provide the hosting fee formula by the end of April.

Councillor Frank Di Giorgio, budget chief and member of the committee, does not see a problem with the missing puzzle piece, emphasizing the importance of the project over its financial contribution.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be crystallized until final approvals are given,†he said. “I have to be convinced that the overall development is something that would add value to the city going forward.â€

Premier Kathleen Wynne declared in March that any deal between Toronto and OLG would have to use the same formula as other municipalities.

Monday’s meeting, which gets underway at 9:30 a.m., is expected to attract the spectrum of casino commentators, including horse industry representatives, David McKeown, the city’s chief medical officer of health, residents and union spokespeople.

By Friday afternoon, almost 200 people had signed up to give deputations.

“Depending on the number of deputations on the list, there’s only a number of factors that people can bring to light,†said Di Giorgio. “It’s only a matter of time before the arguments become repetitive.â€
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http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/63...ants-to-limit-speaking-time-at-casino-debate/
 
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