Playing the Odds: Ottawa's New Casino and How Council Could Screw It Up

Ottawa. source: morguefile

I hope you don’t mind me discussing this but Ottawa seems to run out of commons sense sometimes. I  always find it funny that if you get three friends together over dinner and a beer, they always seem to come up with the answer to life’s questions. That is how we came up with the solution I’m going to present to you for Ottawa casino the province is considering for the city. Let’s walk you through it.

A CASINO FOR OTTAWA

Tired of watching millions upon millions of dollars going over to the Gatineau casino across the Quebec  border, the province has decided they want their piece of the pie: let’s allow a casino to be built in Ottawa. Our mayor seems behind the idea and has set a few criteria. One, it must be downtown, and two, it must be on our new rapid transit way.

Unfortunately there is no space right downtown. Any big-time Casino corporation is going to want space to build a hotel and conference facilities because modern casinos make 60% of their money from such facilities. The Bytown Market business association has already expressed their distaste for having it anywhere near the Market.

THE ELEGANT SOLUTION

 

Conference space, hotel space, event space:
all part of a casino's success.
source: morguefile

However, there is one location that fits all the requirements. That location is at the corner of Booth Street, Scott St. and the MacDonald (River) Parkway, or what is affectionately known as LeBreton Flats. As it stands today this location is a huge multi-acre empty field. The casino would sit directly on the transit way and could even have it run through the building. Booth Street runs virtually in a direct line to the Queensway, and it runs straight into Gatineau. The Parkway allows vehicles to come from the west of the city; it also allows fantastic access to the center of the city and the existing hotels. A shuttle such as they use in Las Vegas could bring people from the hotels to the casino. The land itself is a weed field and has been for fifty years so there will not be complaints of a loss of park space or tree canopy. The new water system

recently installed in the area gives it good infrastructure.

WIN-WIN

What else would we gain? Well, the corporation that takes the project on would have to do upgrades to any other infrastructure they need. It would pay huge tax dollars and profits to the city and the province, including paying some of the costs of the new transit way. We won’t have to tear up the downtown core and that means less traffic havoc. It physically won’t affect our downtown tourist area or force us to tear down culturally relevant buildings (heritage stuff). The National Capital Commission’s parkland in front of the War Museum, located right across the street, will benefit from the facilities, restaurants, shops, etc. making it a  true tourist area. The city will get its much-needed new hotel. This is pretty much a win-win for everyone.

LET'S DO THIS THING.

So what do we need to do to move this forward? First, send this blog to everyone on your lists; share it over facebook and twitter; post it on Reddit. The more people thinking about it the better.

Second, talk about it. We will get one chance to do this right. Do you want to leave something this important to city councillors and the Province? I sure don’t. Let’s get our say in now.