Ironically as I read this, the Treasure Cove Banner ad is flashing above :)

No surprises here. This was a forgone conclusion.

Not sure how you tie in the increase in selling booze at CN Centre, and at the Casino while at the same time trying to reduce the number of drinking drivers.

Perhaps our Mayor and her illustrious Councillors could explain how that works.

Palopu …. liquor is not their primary business …. They said gambling and food are the primary business…. but I believe it is called a liquor primary license.

I mean if we had auto show rooms applying for liquor primary a;icenses, then I can see the connection with drinking and driving ……the only connection here is between drinking and gambling …….

gambling whether you will get home safely after having had too much to drink and being ticked off that you lost $175 or more.

They go hand in hand. Increase availability of booze and number of drinking patrons and an immediate increase in revenue from more drinking drivers.

I’m with Albert Koehler on this one. The governments of todays world want us to gamble and drink and pay tax and shut up. That’s the bottom line.

He also noted that the calls to the local RCMP detachment amount to about 6 per month and have dealt with patrons who refuse to leave the premises, theft from vehicles and some drug dealing (which has decreased).

Bald faced lie………Anyone who has a police scanner would know this to be true. I listen in on Friday and Saturday nights and I’ll tell you there are at least 2 calls for DUI each night originating from the casino as well as the other things mentioned. It ain’t rocket science people.

Mr. Koehler is the only right thinking councillor, on this issue.
metalman.

Has any application made on behalf of the Casino been denied? Foregone conclusion is right Palopu.

Councilor Skakun is one of two members to remove himself due to the possibility of a perceived conflict. Skakun’s resulting from his son’s summer job; Mayor Green sits straight across from Mr. Major – heck, no conflict here – did the Majors not contribute some $7500 clams to her Mayoral campaign? Yep, forgone conclusion for sure. It stinks.

bcnorth250………Exactly our mayor did in fact receive financial backing from Mr. Major.

can we all say “Conflict of interest together”.

We can say one term wonder..how did that fizzy guy vote??

Major gets what he wants, he got the casino built at a major pg cross road, then got his left hand turn lane, got all the breaks to build the bingo hall and now has moved it to be part of the casino and now he gets this.
I wonder how Green and Skakun decide which one of them will be mowing his lawn this week.

Treasure Cove Casino gave the mayor $13,440.
TC Hotel gave her $873.
Total-$14,313……

Scari Green”s campaign contributions totalled $81,147. No doubt there will be other issues she should not be voting on.

Major took a chance with Green and it paid out in spades. While Green is gambling with the future of Prince George! Yikes we are losers again no matter how we toss the dice!

Way to go Mr. Koehler, finally someone with some family values. Unbelievable that Councillor Krause would support this given his social background and direct knowledge of the negative impacts of combining gambling and alcohol. Did he get money from Major like Mayor Sheri? Maybe he is affraid of the new mayor and doesn’t want to rock the boat?

So much for principles.

Not unexpected that this got the “green” light though as every single application that has come forward over the past twenty years that is about expanding gambling has been supported by Council. Good deal for Mr Major (and likely why he doesn’t mind putting thousands out for campaign contributions or hiring family members of politicians so as to remove them from the discussion) and a good deal for the Province that takes the majority of the cash.

So much for the thought that money doesn’t buy influence.

I have to wonder how Brian Skakun is in a conflict because his son is making maybe a few thousands dollars over the summer doing some work at the Casino while the Mayor hauls in the largest single municipal campaign contribution in the city’s history (and maybe in BC history) at more than $14,000, and she isn’t in conflict?

So much for ethics.

I wonder how many of the people commenting actually go to the casino. My guess is none.

The faux outrage expressed by many is more about people’s feelings towards mayor and council, not the issue itself. It is surprising that Shari Green got elected… based on the comments on this site, you’d be hard pressed to find too many Mayor Green supporters.

I might be wrong on this, but I think this is a combination of perceived conflict of interest / optics of the campaign contributions coupled with the moral outrage from recent councils who have displayed a distinct unwillingness to increase drinking seats at local pubs etc and complaining we have way too many already. So then to suddenly increase the drinking seats of one establishment it just doesn’t add up to consistent council planning.

Drinking & casinos go hand in hand. Get over it.

Campaign contrubitions as a conflict of interest?

Sure, could be seen that way.

The biggest interest that the City has is that it gets a portion of the gambling losses by people in this and surrounding casino supporting communities. The more people lose, the more the City makes. The more people gamble, the more people lose.

And, very likely, the more people are under the influence, the more people gamble.

Of course, that is only a hypothesis. ;-)

So, for a City that is having financial problems, they are desparate and and will resort to desparate methods.

After all, we have seen Mr. Major pull up stakes on a large investment downtown. If things do not go his way, he may just pull up stakes and move to Red Rock.

River Rock Casino …… Red Rock Casino. Kinda a nice ring to it. Why, he could even put up a circus tent there and bring exotic animal acts in ….. ;-)

Interesting that there was no controversy over drunk patrons. Over drunk patrons possibly bothering other patrons. Over the possibility of drunks (up to a maximum 1216) pouring out into vehicles and causing havoc in our streets. No controversy over noise and disruption to the neighbourhood. No controversy over the extra burden placed on police resources, soon to be located further away from this location. No controversy at all.
See Teddy, you just have to have a cool business plan.
Weaksauce: “Drinking and casinos go hand in hand.” But drinking and nightclubs don’t? Right.

This one got passed pretty easily compared to Coyotes. The Coyotes group obviously didn’t contribute to the right campaign during the election.

The Casino still manages to drive more nails in to the coffin of downtown.

What continues to amuse is the hypocracy that Mayor and Council don’t want drinking while watching a hockey game at a facility they have full control over but think it’s okay to have a cocktail in one hand while having a pull on the slot machine with the other hand (okay push – I have been to the casino).

BTW, gambling in BC (and Canada for that matter) is run by the government and they are fully addicted to the proceeds. The city’s take is small in comparison to what flows to the Province. Millions upon millions each month flow from the establishment on highway 16&97 direct to the provincial treasury in Victoria for redistribution to those getting all the big projects in the metro vancouver area.

Sounds like an economic drain rather than benefit.

And they wonder why no one goes to Cougar games. The entertainment dollar is being siphoned off by the gambling bosses in Victoria.

And to think that at one point in time the former Liberal Premier (GC) publicly stated that they were opposed to expanded gambling. Yesh, you have to wonder what things would be like like if they were in favour of growing the business. LOL

And to think that at one point in time the NDP was solidly opposed to any gambling! That was until it changed its mind and excused bringing in the slot machines by saying that too much money left the province by people taking flights to Reno and Las Vegas to go to the casinos. Lame excuse in my opinion, but the mighty buck always overrules any other pious intentions.

The CHOICE to drink and drive has little to do with the availability of liquor in an establishment. If this was true then why would we sell liquor in any public place? Why not just shut down every profitable enterprise where spirits are sold and just shut the whole town down? People like to drink and if they would like to spend their hard earned money on it RESPONSIBLY then why not? Drinking and driving is a choice and no matter where it is you are drinking there will alway be the risk of people being completely stupid.
Just because there are more locations that liquor is sold in an establisment does not mean that people are forced to drink more. If someone want to get hammered they will. If someone else wants to enjoy a beverage responsibly in a more convenientlocation, why not?
I think JohnnyBelt has hit the nail on the head. People are mad at government, not about the issue.

Well at least when I give my $20.00 budgeted dollars to the casino I’ll get something back for a change…LOL

PG: “And to think that at one point in time the NDP was solidly opposed to any gambling!”

Things change, whether we want them to or not. If people didn’t gamble here, they could do it in the comfort of their own homes on their computers, or go to where it’s legal.

Gambling is here. So is alcohol. Both are voluntary. Both put a lot of money into provincial coffers. That’s the reality whether we like it or not.

JB,I commented on the remark that at one time the BC Liberals and GC were against expanding gambling by saying that at one time the BCNDP was against ALL gambling. Both parties did not do what they promised to do. That’s all.

Gambling and drinking alcohol have been pastimes of mankind since Babylonian times, or even before that.

One thing which has never changed is that politicians say things to get elected and then either do nothing or they do the exact opposite. They are all alike when it comes to comparing the broken promises of one with the broken promises of another.

PG: “Both parties did not do what they promised to do. That’s all. “

And that’s what I was getting at before. Things change. Parties get into power and decide to do things in a different way than they planned.

Have you ever started a job and realized it was going to cost more than estimated or requires a different approach? When this happens in politics, people refer to it as lying. It is usually far more complicated than that.

The horror of it all. The collapse of society is upon us. Slot players with a cocktail is the slippery slope into anarchy. Why don’t we have leadership like Iran?

A Shah( k-absorber) and a President named I’m-a-dick-a-jad for leaders ?

Anyone who thinks that selling liquor at the Casino will not result in bigger losses, and more impaired driving charges, are somewhat impaired themselves.

Before you had to leave the tables to get a drink, and now you will be able to sit there and just keep on gambling.

Contrary to popular opinion, Gambling, and Drinking alcohol is a sickness. It matters little how much or how little you consume. You might want to ask yourself why it is necessary to pour alcohol (poison) into your system.

When people drink, the first thing thing they lose is their ability to reason. So after 5 or 6 beers, they begin to beleive that they can actually drive better with a few drinks than without.

If you dont think that alcohol effects how you do things, the next time you go for an operation, ask the doctor to have a couple of slugs of whisky to calm his nerves before he starts to cut.

Palopu: “Anyone who thinks that selling liquor at the Casino will not result in bigger losses”

They already sell liquor at the Casino. The patrons want a drink while on the floor, like just about every other casino.

As usual, we seem to have a small group of vocal tea-totallers in PG who probably don’t drink or gamble, but want to deny others.

I didn’t have you pegged as a nanny-stater, Pal… but maybe I was wrong.

There are probably some that would enjoy a belt or two while laundering their money.
Tongue in cheek people, please….:)