Regarding the Official Plan Amendment (file # D09-19-03) and Zoning By-law Amendment (file # D14-19-09) to re-designate and re-zone municipal land known as the “former Abitibi Mill site”. As written, the amendments will allow the new Kenora casino being planned by Gateway Casinos & Entertainment to be built on the newly designated General Commercial zone at the corner of Veterans Drive and Ninth Street.

We, the undersigned, petition the Council to ensure that the proposed amendments clearly exclude casinos and all other gaming facilities from being built on the former Abitibi Mill site.

-our previous City Council passed a resolution allowing a casino to be built in Kenora and Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) has awarded the right to build to Gateway Casinos

-          the issue is not the casino – it is WHERE it is located.

-     A casino development needs a fairly big chunk of land (building and large parking lot) and municipal services (water, sewer, electricity) but it does not need to be mere blocks from downtown on a busy corner and within visual and walking distance of a heavily populated residential area.

-          There are places in the city where the necessary land and municipal services are available that would require patrons to drive and where the traffic created by a casino development wouldn’t be adding to the congestion downtown and around schools.

-         Gateway runs very successful proprietary restaurants on their casino properties. I believe that a restaurant with the weight of a large successful corporation behind it and located at the corner of Veterans Drive and Ninth Street, mere blocks from downtown, would create significant and unfair competition to the restaurants that already serve the downtown patrons. Restaurant owners in Kenora should be encouraged to check out the menu and prices on the gateway casino websites and decide for themselves whether they feel they can compete.