The Mayor, City council and the casino debate: Lansdowne 2.0? | Unpublished
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Unpublished Opinions

Ian Lee's picture
Ottawa, Ontario
About the author

Lee earned his PhD in public policy at Carleton University in 1989. Previously, he was employed in financial services in the 1970s in Ottawa.

He has appeared multiple times before the House of Commons Finance and Senate Banking committees since 2007. He has been in every Government of Canada budget lockup since 2008. He attended pre-budget consultations with the Minister of Finance in 2009 and 2010 and attended the Finance Minister’s annual strategic retreat in 2011.

Lee authored a seminal article, “Pink slips and running shoes” on the Chretien-Martin downsizing of the public service in the 1996 How Ottawa Spends. He authored a similar piece on the Harper government downsizing of the public service in the 2013 How Ottawa Spends. He authored an article analyzing corporate income tax reductions and the 2011 federal election in 2012 How Ottawa Spends. He authored “Striking Out: The New Normal in Canadian Labour Relations?” in the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, June 2012“. His article reviewing the first five years of the PBO has been accepted for the 2014 edition of How Ottawa Spends.

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The Mayor, City council and the casino debate: Lansdowne 2.0?

August 24, 2013

Dear Ottawa residents,

By now, citizens of Ottawa are aware of Ottawa's next boondoggle - the Mayor's desperate search for not one but two casinos - notwithstanding the well-known objections based on evidence based research documenting the dangers of gambling to some people.

But that is not what caught my attention. No, it was a sense of what Yogi Berra called "déjà vu all over again". We have seen this train wreck movie before. In the Lansdowne debate, a competitive process approved by Council, was killed behind closed doors in the middle of the night to create a sole sourced contract.

To be fair, this time Mayor Watson and Council did not even attempt to create the illusion of a transparent, fair, open competitive process. They jumped in repeatedly in attempts to gerrymander the process to fix the outcome.

Council needs to stop Mayor Watson's rush to judgment and establish meaningful consultation and allow those opposed to any casino as well as those opposed to particular locations for a proposed casino to be heard - before any decision is announced. Moreover, all studies and background information must be provided to the public in order to reveal the economic and social costs and benefits of a (two) casino - before consultations take place.

The Mayor and Councillors need to put aside their Putinesque machismo and act like - well, democratically elected and responsible politicians. Surely, they will find this helpful when they face their fate in the 2014 election.

Ian Lee, PhD
Sprott School of Business
Carleton University
Ottawa, Canada