June 19, 2007
The Canadian Press
Aboriginal chiefs in Ontario have rejected a $2.5-billion, 20-year settlement offer from the province aimed at resolving disputes related to casino and lottery revenues.
The province offered to pay First Nations a 1.6 per cent share of provincial gaming revenues in order to settle disputes over its collection of a 20 per cent tax on Casino Rama's gross revenues.
The government's offer could have amounted to $125 million per year for 20 years, to be divided up among 133 Ontario First Nations communities for health care, education and infrastructure.
But Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse said Monday that the offer would compromise First Nations jurisdiction and sovereignty for generations to come.
Toulouse said aboriginals would have to give up their interest in Casino Rama, near Orillia, Ont., and also abandon a lawsuit against the province claiming over $2-billion in connection with the casino.
Toulouse said he was "extremely disappointed that the province's proposal was so one-sided" and contained provisions that the First Nations could not accept.
"The province cannot expect the First Nations to agree to unreasonable terms and conditions attached to the receipt of that funding," Toulouse said in a release.
"While the proposal involved a lot of money, there is more at issue than money."
Public Infrastructure Minister David Caplan, who is responsible for casinos, said Monday he was disappointed the First Nations rejected an offer he described as "exceedingly generous" and tried to put the best possible face on the collapse of the deal.
"We had anticipated and hoped that we would be able to achieve an agreement," Caplan said in an interview.
"There was a very high threshold. They required a two-thirds majority of their partners in order to ratify."
Both Caplan and Toulouse expressed a desire to resume negotiations and settle the issue as quickly as possible.
"What we're most interested in is a new relationship with Ontario's First Nations, and we'll be engaging with them on what the next steps will be," said Caplan.
The proposed deal would also have given First Nations representation on the board of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., giving them a say in how the organization is run.
Under the current deal, which expires in 2011, some aboriginal communities get a cut of the revenue generated by Casino Rama, which works out to an average of $60 million a year.
Under the rejected agreement, the 133 aboriginal communities would have received a cut of all the provincial cash that comes from gaming, essentially doubling their annual revenue share to about $125 million.
Sharing gaming revenue has been a thorny issue for governments of all stripes in Ontario.
Casino Rama was originally set up as a First Nations Casino with revenue going to communities within the Ontario First Nations Limited Partnership.
A 20 per cent "win tax" — imposed on Casino Rama by the former Conservative government in 1996 — prompted several lawsuits from aboriginal communities and Ontario chiefs, claiming the government was not entitled to a cut of the casino profits.