Title
Casino Proceeds Revenue Sharing Fairness within
Greater Langley
Recommended Action
Whereas in fiscal 2017-2018 municipalities within British Columbia received $102M from casino and gaming revenue, with $72.1M of that within the Lower Mainland, and $7.69M just to the City of Langley alone, with a population of only 25,888 (c.2016);
Whereas in fiscal 2017-2018 the City of Richmond alone received $17M in casino proceeds, with a population of only 198,309 (c.2016), as Langley City, Surrey, Abbotsford and Maple Ridge (and even Mission and Chilliwack) all continue to receive casino or gaming revenue each year, while the Township of Langley, the region’s
6th largest municipality, does not;
Whereas the Township of Langley, City of Delta, District of North Vancouver, City of North Vancouver, District of West Vancouver,
City of Port Coquitlam, City of Port Moody, City of White Rock, and the City of Pitt Meadows all also continue to not receive any annual casino or gaming revenue, even with combined populations of over 525,000 taxpaying residents (c.2016);
Whereas the elementary principle of basic fairness should apply to the distribution of regional casino and gaming proceeds inclusive of all regional municipalities and their respective populations and taxpayers;
Whereas gambling within the region as a whole imposes social and municipal costs upon all municipalities within reasonable proximity to casino and gaming locations; and
Whereas it is inherently unfair that only some municipalities receive (in some cases many) millions of dollars in casino and gaming proceeds obviously attributable to residents of adjacent (and often much larger) municipalities, while other regional municipalities (possibly even less than 1km away from a casino) and their taxpaying residents receive absolutely nothing at all;
Therefore be it resolved that staff be directed to:
(a) if deemed necessary and achievable, recommend a qualified consultant to study and provide estimates of the percentage of revenue being generated from Township of Langley residents and businesses frequenting the Cascades Casino within Langley City, and other gaming locations within an applicable distance; and
(b) outline a potential plan to petition the Province of British Columbia to review and revise the current disbursement of regionally-generated casino and gaming proceeds:
(i) such that a fair, reasonable, and substantial percentage of the annual casino proceeds from the Cascades Casino also flow to the Township of Langley because: (1) it is inherently unfair not to do so; (2) the Township of Langley is less than 1km from Cascades Casino; and (3) the Township of Langley has a substantially larger population contributing thereto;
(ii) to be a more fair and equitable distribution to the benefit of all municipalities and their respective taxpayers potentially based on population metrics recognizing: (1) respective populations within reasonable proximity to one or more regional casino(s) or gaming location(s), and not merely the physical locations thereof; and
(2) municipal costs related thereto, borne by neighbouring municipalities without any beneficial revenues therefrom; and
(iii) such that, if deemed necessary, commit that all funds received from casino and/or gaming proceeds be used to improve infrastructure connections with the City of Langley, and/or towards the cost of protective services, road infrastructure, recreation facility maintenance, bylaw enforcement, and/or all other gambling-impacted municipal services provided adjacent thereto.
(c) contact and coordinate with the regional municipalities of
District of North Vancouver, City of North Vancouver,
District of West Vancouver, City of Port Coquitlam, City of
Port Moody, City of White Rock, and the City of Pitt Meadows to potentially coordinate a combined effort, in partnership with the Township of Langley, to collectively petition the Province of British Columbia for regional casino and gaming proceeds revenue fairness.