Renegade Liberal Offers Solution to Controversial Slots-at-Racetrack Program…

Dealtown, Ontario – March 4, 2012… The board of directors of the Dealtown Casino Initiative unanimously approved a proposal from Chairman, Brian Keenan, to incorporate a Super-Track Plan (STP) into current design and thinking for the Dealtown Casino Hotel & Retirement Resort in Southwestern Ontario.  Chatham-Kent’s mayor, Randy Hope, and local Conservative MPP, Rick Nicholls have met repeatedly with Keenan to discuss the proposal.  Both support any plan that would transform the deserted Southwestern Regional Centre (SWRC) in Dealtown into a bustling resort that would provide more than 3,000 new jobs to economically devastated Chatham-Kent. Keenan says, “The idea to add a super racehorse track to the Dealtown Casino plan came to me after reading all the horse manure being flung by the Ontario Liberal government and the Ontario Horse Racing and Breeding industry over the antiquated and controversial OLG Slots at Racetracks program.”  Don Drummond, in his Drummond Report, identified this agreement and several others areas under the domain of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) as areas that could, and should, be changed if the Minister of Finance, Dwight Duncan, was going to “maximize profits” from the gaming industry in Ontario. There is no disputing that the 10 year old OLG Slots at Racetracks program is broken and seriously flawed. Most of the 17 agreements have recently expired and unless someone at OLG seriously screwed up, those agreements have not yet been renewed since everyone at Queens Park and OLG were anxiously awaiting the Drummond Report before making any changes. During the initial 10 year term, more than $3.5 billion dollars was doled out to the Racetracks and Horse People; as the two groups are referred to by OLG. An additional $600+ million was paid directly to the municipalities in which the 17 racetracks are located. The first and most serious flaw deals with the nearly equal payment of 10% to both the Racetracks and Horse People of the slot machine revenues at these sites. The payments to the Horse People appears to have been used, as intended, to improve the breeding stock in Ontario and to support race purses at these tracks which in turn helps attract quality breeders to our province to share in the race purses. This was confirmed in the 2008 report to the Minister of Government and Consumer Services that dealt with the strategic vision and direction for the Ontario Horse Racing and Breeding industry. This same study confirmed that the payments to the Racetracks (owners and operators) seriously lacked any controls or accountability to OLG. Therein is the $1,750,000,000 problem! The second flaw in the current slot program was the belief and anticipation that locating the slot machines at these racetracks would somehow attract an increasing number of people to the track when the horses were actually racing. Unfortunately, almost the opposite happened in that the people, who were attracted to the slots, seldom, if ever, take in the horse racing which in itself is seasonal. They come to the track, morning, noon and night 365 days a year for the sole purpose of playing the slots. If the slots were relocated to another more convenient location in these same communities, as the Drummond Report suggests, slot revenues to OLG from these 17 locations would most certainly increase; and in all likelihood double or even triple.   For those unfamiliar with horse racing, you should understand that the 17 racetracks involved with the OLG Slot Program operate an average of only 88 days each year, with 9 tracks open for racing less than 88 days and 4 of these 9 operating less than 30 days a year. You should also know that there is more money spent playing Bingo than there is being bet on pari-mutual wagering in Ontario. The light went on after talking with Ontario racehorse owners and trainers and listening to the pleading by the Ontario Horse People to save the nearly 60,000 direct and indirect jobs associated with this largely rural based industry! Keenan believes that there is a Win, Win solution that can save all those jobs, put millions, if not billions, into Finance Minister Duncan’s deficit reduction bank account, and put another 3,000+ unemployed people back to work in Chatham-Kent and an equal number in several of the other Super-Track centers. Here are the key recommendations of Keenan’s Super-Track Plan: 1.      Terminate the Racetracks (owners and operators) subsidy currently paid to all 17 locations which amounted to $170 million last year and approximately $1.75 billion since the program started. If that money was used to improve the facilities at the respective racetracks then Ontario must have 17 of the finest tracks in the world and should not need further subsidies.  If past payments from OLG under the Slots-at-Track program were used to subsidize the operation of unprofitable tracks or line the owner’s pockets, as the finance minister suggests is happening, then the subsidies must stop anyway since the government can’t keep throwing good money after bad! 2.      Continue to operate the Slot facilities at the current 17 locations until the smaller tracks are closed because they will no longer be self-sufficient without subsidies. 3.      Continue to pay the Horse People 10% of the Slot revenue from the current 17 locations and expand the program to include additional slots added to the Super-Tracks equal to the number of slots currently installed at the smaller tracks that cease to operate. 4.      Allow the sponsor municipalities to relocate the slot centres to more suitable locations if the track closes or if a move might generate more revenue for the community, the Horse People and the government through its OLG arm. 5.      Designate the three race tracks that currently operate more than 150 days a year as Super-Tracks (Woodbine, Rideau and Flamboro). 6.      Build a forth Super-Track at the proposed 250 acre site of the Dealtown Casino that would provide service for Horse People if and when the tracks in Windsor, Sarnia, Dresden, Clinton and London close for economic reasons.  7.      Add additional days of track operations at the Super-Tracks to support closure of the smaller tracks in their respective regional areas. 8.      OLG should offer the current Racetrack Owners & Operators loans to transform the tracks that close and submit redevelopment plans for their facilities. To help you better understand the economics of this proposal, you must understand some of nit-ti gritty stuff.  For example, the owner/operator of the small racetracks in Windsor, Dresden and Woodstock received an estimated $78 million over the past decade under the slot program while the numbers for London’s Western Fair exceeds $100 million during the same period.  If the Keenan’s proposed plan is implemented, the Horse People will see an increase in revenue to support their industry!  OLG will contribute an additional $200+ million a year toward the current deficit.  The new Dealtown Casino and Super-Track will be built entirely by private investment and yet contribute nearly as much as the other major Ontario casino’s to the government treasury. Now doesn’t that sound like a winning proposition for everyone? But more importantly, it will pump several hundred million of capital construction into Southern Ontario.  It will create over 3000 new jobs in Chatham-Kent and the surrounding municipalities! It will increase the tax base in CK and thus lower our property taxes. Imagine, this is all possible because an economist named Don Drummond was asked to point out what the government could do to reduce its deficit without reducing the level of health care, education and other services that the folks in Ontario need.  Thank you Mr Drummond! By Brian Keenan, Chairman Dealtown Casino Initiative

A New Deal is Proposed for Race Horse Industry...

Chatham, ON. February 29, 2012...  Simple Solutions Can Save Ontario Liberals from Self Destruction…   The Toronto Casino, Ontario Place and Horse Racing subsidy issues are three explosive issues capable of bringing down the Liberals if solutions are not found before the next budget!   As many of my followers know, I have offered up a solution that would make some, maybe even all, the stakeholders in the Ontario horse racing industry very happy campers.  It would also cough up a couple of billion dollars towards Ontario’s bulging deficit. The article that I published over the weekend, titled “Don Drummond is a Genius”  provides a rough framework for this WIN, WIN solution.   In simple terms, here is what I have proposed and how it addresses Don Drummond’s recommendation to derive more income for the Ontario treasury from OLG. The solutions is really quite simple and can be almost painless, if not even comforting!  Let me walk you through the steps and the logic behind my plan, which for selfish reasons, I will continue to encompass under my Dealtown Casino Initiative (DCI) under the sub-heading of the Super-Track Plan (STP) because it gives new life to the old rusty failing OLG Slots at Racetracks program.   First, there is no disputing that the 10 year old OLG Slots at Racetracks program is broken and seriously flawed.  Most of the 17 agreements expired on December 31, 2011 and unless someone at OLG seriously screwed up, those agreements would not have been renewed yet since everyone at Queens Park and OLG was awaiting the Drummond Report before doing anything major. During the initial 10 year term, more than $3.5 billion dollars was dolled out to the Racetracks and Horse People as referred to by OLG.  An additional $600+ million was paid directly to the municipalities in which the 17 racetracks are located.   The first and most serious flaw deals with the nearly equal payment of 10% to both the Racetracks and Horse People of the slot machine revenues at these sites.  The payments to the Horse People appears to have been used to improve the breeding stock in Ontario and to support race purses at these tracks to attract quality breeders to our province to share in the race purses. This was confirmed in the 2008 report to the Minister of Government and Consumer Services that dealt with the strategic vision and direction for the Ontario Horse Racing and Breeding industry.  This same study confirmed that the payments to the Racetracks seriously lacked any controls or accountability to OLG.  Therein lays the $1,750,000,000 problem!   The second flaw in the current slot program was the belief and anticipation that locating the slot machines at these racetracks would somehow attract an increasing number of people to the track when the horses were actually racing.  Unfortunately, almost the opposite happened in that the people, who were attracted to the slots seldom , if ever, take in the horse racing which in itself is seasonal. They come to the track, morning, noon and night for the sole purpose of playing the slots. If the slots were relocated to another more convenient location in these same communities, as the Drummond Report suggested, revenues to OLG would most certainly increase; and in all likelihood it would double or even triple.    For those unfamiliar with horse racing, you should understand that the 17 racetracks involved with the OLC Slot Program operate an average of only 88 days each year, with 9 of them open for racing less than 88 days and 4 of these 9 operate less than 30 days a year.  You should also know that there is more money spent playing Bingo in Ontario than there is bet on pari-mutual wagering at these horse racing tracks in Ontario.   Ask yourself, “How could Don Drummond not point Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals to the OLG and its antiquated and seriously flawed Slots at Racetracks program and how could he not see that the gaming industry in Ontario is one of many ways to generate much needed revenues for the government’s war on its deficit?”  The knee-jerk solution from the Minister of Finance, Dwight Duncan was to open a big casino in Toronto and cut what he calls “the subsidy” program to the Ontario horse racing industry. That solution is seriously flawed for many reasons including the fact that I could take 3 to 5 years to build this mega-casino in Toronto and including the fact that it would seriously damage the horse racing industry in Ontario which supports 55 to 60 thousand jobs.   Along comes, little ole Brian Keenan, the self-appointed Chairman of the Dealtown Casino Hotel and Retirement Village initiative, DCI for short.  This initiative was started long before Keenan and most other folks in Ontario even heard of Don Drummond and his report.  It was started to bring new life to one of Ontario’s devastated communities, namely Chatham-Kent by delivering a modest 3,000 new jobs.  It was started to save the 650,000 sq ft 250 acre closed regional centre from being bulldozed.  It was started because the government passed over this suitable faciliy for that correctional institution in favour of a spanking new $247M building being built in Windsor in the Hon. Dwight Duncan’s riding.   Along came the Duncan Report that challenges the government to manage its real estate assets more efficiently and charged them to use OLG to generate more revenues.   Tune in to my next blog entry to learn how the revised Dealtown Casino Racetrack & Retirement Village initiative has been enhanced to save the Horse Racing and Breeding industry in Ontario. Learn how a few simple steps by the Ontario Liberal government can generate several billion dollars to eat away at the deficit.  Learn how the Liberals can be accomplished without spending more taxpayer’s money!      This is why I say, “Don Drummond is a Genius!”   -         30 – By Brian Keenan, Chairman Dealtown Casino Initiative

Don Drummond is a Genius!

Don Drummond is a Genius! Sometimes you just can’t see the forest for the trees! Mr Drummond is a genius, not because he has given us the solutions to the province’s deficit problem but because he identified the areas that need to be addressed.  It’s up to us to cultivate the ground-work he has done and plant the solution seeds! Don Drummond has pointed us to at least one way to clip over a billion from the deficit through OLG.  One of the problem areas Mr Drummond identified for us involves the revenue sharing agreements with the horse racing industry. Millions and millions of dollars have been paid to the race track operators and the Ontario race horse breeders over the past 10 or so years under the OLG Slots at Racetrack agreements.  The 2010 payments totaled $334 million alone. Half of that goes to the track owners and operators and half goes to the horse people. The horse people use those funds to improve the breeding stock in the province and support race purses to attract quality breeders to the tracks.  This side of the current formula supports 55,000 jobs (according to the HLT Report on Horse Racing) in Ontario and generates tons of tax revenues and spending for and in the province.  It would be like shooting yourself in the foot to tamper with this part of the arrangement so leave it alone. The industry derives its income from three sources: wagering on horse races, the sale of Ontario-bred racehorses and slot revenue. The Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association (OHRIA) manages the use of the slot revenues. The second part of the formula involves payments to the track owners and operators.  These payments to the 17 Slot at Track partners totaled $169 million in 2010 and many millions  (actually the number exceeds $1.5 billion) in previous years. The agreements anticipated that improvements would be made to racetrack infrastructures, they did not specifically require improvements to be made and benchmarks and controls were not put in place by OLG to ensure that this would happen. Most track operators did initially make improvement to their racing facilities to accommodate the slots, some more than others. With some exceptions, much of these millions of dollars paid to the track operators simply evaporated and most certainly have not been used to improve the facilities. Maybe Don Drummond saw this loop-hole in the Slots at Track program or maybe not but this is where a change and a new solution should be found; a solution that will NOT affect the revenue to the horse owners. Here is my solution to the later problem!  Transfer the ownership of the racetracks to OLG so that 50% of this subsidy or whatever you want to call it goes back to the government to help pay down the province’s staggering deficit. There is more!  Close some of the 17 racetracks and build Super-tracks with full service casinos at geographically disbursed locations, like Woodbine, Mohawk, Ajax Down, Fort Erie, Rideau and Sudbury. Oh, did I forget some of the tracks? Yes, because we need to eliminate some to consolidate. Now for the bite that will hurt the most but will help both the horse people and the industry. Close the Windsor, Sarnia, Dresden, Clinton and Western Fair tracks and add a Super-track to the Dealtown Casino Initiative where the government already owns a 250 acre parcel of prime real estate and where they already have a 650,000 sq ft resort facility that can be transformed into the Dealtown Casino Racetrack and Retirement Village AT NO COST TO ONTARIO TAXPAYERS! The casino and racetrack will be paid for by one of the major gaming and hospitality developers, like Penn National or Delaware North who have impressive track records in both racetracks and casinos, or partners like Paragon Gaming of Las Vegas or Donald Trump who both have solid track records in Canada. Thank you Mr Drummond for identifying the problem!  Now it’s time to implement the solutions! By Brian Keenan, Chairman of the Dealtown Casino Initiative

Niagara Falls Officials Cry the Blues…

Niagara Falls Officials Cry the Blues… Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor is a selfish, protectionist, cry-baby along with all the other Niagara officials!  More than a decade ago, the gaming authority in Ontario, OLG, gave new life and economic prosperity to Niagara Falls.  The decision to open, not one but two, casinos in Niagara Falls delivered some $2 billion in investments in hotels, restaurants and attractions to the city.  Now Craitor and city officials are crying foul on the chance that Toronto, or some other needier city, might get a casino. What about the concept of sharing good fortune with other much less fortunate cities? No, Craitor wants to keep the Golden Goose to himself, even if it means going against his party wishes.  He wants cities like Chatham to get the sour grapes, or should I say “the wind turbines” and “solar farms!” I am sick and tired of hearing the rich cities cry; and see cities like Windsor get one economic cookie after another, while cities like Chatham, Tilbury, Blenheim, Ridgetown and Wheatley (collectively called Chatham-Kent or CK) get literally wiped off the map. In the last decade CK has lost over 13,000 jobs which is about 20% of its adult workforce. The most recent census reported a drop in CK’s population in excess of 4500 souls.  The city with the 5th lowest real estate values in Canada has elegant Victorian mansions for sale at distress prices below the price of small condos or tiny town-houses in the GTA and the Niagara region. Read my lips Mr Craitor and all the other political officials crying foul about OLG lifting the moratorium on casinos; Chatham-Kent needs HELP and needs it NOW!  Unless someone has a better idea; that much needed help can come in the form of OLG’s support for the proposed Dealtown Casino Hotel and Retirement Village initiative.  This $200+ million facelift and transformation of the 650,000 sq ft Southwestern Regional Centre (SWRC) in tiny Dealtown on the north shore of Lake Erie will not compete with the Niagara casinos; will not compete with Casino Rama; and will not even compete with the Windsor casino. This retirement resort and casino will however chase the ghosts out of Dealtown and Chatham-Kent. Mr Craitor and pals, it’s our turn! Brian Keenan

Shame, Shame, Shame on the Ontario Government...

Shame, Shame, Shame on the Ontario Government… “Maximize Profits” or NOT? Shame, shame, shame and who should we blame? Buzz words like, “maximize profits” are flying around Queens Park when at the same time billion dollar assists are being sold off by Ontario government for a fraction of a penny on the dollar. Let me share this with you!  The former Rideau Regional Center in Smith Falls, Ontario was sold last year by Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation (OILC) for the tidy sum of $100,000.  This 354 acre property was built with tax payer money in the 40’s and early 50’s. It has 50 interconnected buildings totalling over 800,000 sq ft.  The replacement cost with today’s tax dollars would exceed one billion dollars.  Do the math; the purchase price of $100,000 divided by the asset value today $1,000,000,000 which equals .00010 of a penny on the dollar and that is what was recovered from the sale of this asset.  Wait, this story isn’t over; OILC is now selling off a similar asset again bought with tax dollars in the late 50’s and 60’s and also worth about a billion dollars to replace today.  This time it’s a scenic 235 acre waterfront property with 29 interconnected buildings totalling over 650,000 sq ft of usable space. To make matters worse, these building had a face lift worth millions in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.  We are talking about the former Southwestern Regional Centre (SWRC) in Dealtown Ontario.  Within weeks, the government that wants to “maximize profits” for us tax payers is expected to sell this property less than its Smith Falls counter-part. Let me share a secret with you, a third such property is also being sold off but maybe OILC will get more for it? I’ll explain why I care about saving the Southwestern Regional Centre from the wrecking crews.  In its prime which was not that long ago this self-contained resort housed over 1200 guests.  It is located far from the hustle and bustle of any big city yet only a 10 minute country drive from Hwy 401, the busiest highway in North America.  The resort is perched on the north shore of Lake Erie in the hamlet of Dealtown which is part of Chatham-Kent, one of the largest yet poorest municipalities in all of Canada.  Since the late 90’s, over 13,000 jobs have disappeared from Chatham-Kent and the closing of the regional centre by OG accounted for over 600 of those lost jobs. The current Liberal government has had six years to find another use for these three billion dollar facilities but couldn’t come up with any.  Infrastructure Ontario contemplated converting the Dealtown centre into a juvenile correction facility but instead chose to build a new one in Finance Minister, Dwight Duncan’s Windsor riding at a cost of $247M and leave the Dealtown centre to decay.  Maybe they offered these facilities to the federal government, or maybe not.  Coincidently a few weeks ago, the local newspaper reported, and I quote the Ontario Correctional Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur, that “With (a Federal Bill) C-10, it’s a very new real possibility of having to build a new 1,000 bed facility (in Ontario). And these new facilities cost over $900 million.” Now for the punch line, or whatever you want to call it,  there is a solution that would see the SWRC transformed into the Dealtown Casino Hotel and Retirement Village for a modest $200M and at NO COST TO ONTARIO TAXPAYERS.  It takes only two signatures to make this happen.  This first signature is needed to stop the sale of the property to a doomed demolition crane and tax payer funded solar farm.  The second signature would grant the Dealtown Casino Initiative investment partners a licence to operate a resort casino.  Those two signatures would benefit all of Ontario but more specifically the devastated community of Chatham-Kent. The facility proposed for Dealtown would be a modest 2/3’s the size of the Windsor, Rama and Niagara centres. It would have fewer slots and table games in comparison to the big casinos and will chase a totally different market. This single initiative translates into 1,985 direct jobs, 1,489 indirect jobs and according to the experts another 752 induced jobs which experts say area a result of labour income spending.   That is a total of 4,227 jobs; that is four thousand two hundred and twenty seven new jobs, give or take. In conclusion, let me share some basic math with our Minister of Finance, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and Minister of Economic Development and Innovation!  Those new jobs will generate $190 million of taxable income based on an average salary of only $45,000/employee.  That represents about $20M in income taxes not to mention what OG might earn on casino revenues.  Now that is “maximizing profits” on a two signature investment! -30- By Brian Keenan   Brian Keenan Chairman Dealtown Casino Initiative

Billion Dollar Solar Farm OR a Casino Resort for Dealtown

Billion Dollar Solar Farm OR a Casino Resort for Dealtown… Chatham-Kent realtor, Brian Keenan the self-appointed Chairman of the Dealtown Casino Initiative (DCI) says, “The Ontario Government has a ready-made billion dollar site suitable for a casino and retirement resort, but maybe they don’t want it discovered!”  Instead, they are rushing to dispose of this asset for less than a tenth of a penny on the dollar of what it’s worth to build today.  In all likelihood this sprawling 235 acre Lake Erie waterfront resort property with its 16 mint-condition buildings totaling 650,000 sq ft of floor space will be sold this month for its scrap value. Once demolished, another tax payer subsidized Green Energy solar farm will be erected on the historic site if the deal is not stopped. Ironically, Finance Minister, Dwight Duncan who is on a mission to “maximize profits” passes by this stately resort every time he returns to his home ridding from his perch at Queens Park.  The property in question is known as the Southwestern Regional Centre (SWRC) and it was built with tax dollars in the early 60s.  At its peek, this self-contained resort catered to the daily needs of 1200 guests and employed more than 600 local residences.  It is the newest of three such facilities in Ontario that were deemed surplus by OG and ordered disposed of.  Last year the first of these billion dollar facilities, and a larger one at that, was sold for the tidy sum of $100,000 in Smith Falls to a developer.   “We don’t need a 235 acre solar farm on prime recreational waterfront real estate in Chatham-Kent!” says Keenan, who prepared a detailed plan to transform this stately facility into an appropriately named resort called the “Dealtown Casino Hotel Resort and Retirement Village”.  The plan would require NO TAXPAYER DOLLARS and would be built with $200M of investment capital from recognized leaders in the North American hospitality and gaming industry.  It would ultimately employ 1900 workers from Chatham-Kent, Essex and Middlesex counties and generate another 1400 indirect jobs to service the resort and a further 700 induced jobs which experts say will result from the spending power of these workers.  According to Mayor Randy Hope of CK, the idea received a “cool reception” when he presented it to officials at OLG. That is like the Ontario Government selling off Ontario Place to Samsung, its Green Energy partner, to build a giant wind and solar farm on our beautiful Lake Ontario waterfront. On the other hand, maybe that really is the government’s plan? Could it be that the suggestion to put the Toronto Casino at Ontario Place is just a ploy to rally opposition to that idea in favour of another location like Woodbine Racetrack? That would certainly leave Ontario Place available for one of their Green Energy initiatives. For as you know, Ontario Place is already the home of the province’s first wind farm. If it’s a casino that the minister wants and needs to “maximize profits” then Dealtown is a better, a more logical and a more economical choice for its location.  Those 3,000 new jobs are only a quarter of those lost in CK in the past decade; but they will be a start to a new life and a new heart for the community, not to mention the tax revenue and casino profits the Dealtown Casino Initiative will generate for OG. -          30 – By Brian Keenan

Golden Goose or Dead Duck?

On January 7th, I release a letter to local media and members of parliament.   Subject: Golden Goose or Dead Duck?   Ducana Windows in Tilbury closed its doors this week! It's just another in a long string of "dead ducks" in the once booming Chatham Kent manufacturing economy! Today’s paper reports that “Agriculture Trumps Manufacturing” in Ontario and that the food industry is driving Ontario’s engine.  We’ve also had our share of “dead ducks” in the food processing industry over the years and more recently with the closure of a fruit processing plant in St. Davids.   Last November I brought the Golden Goose to the attention of city officials and fellow Chathamites. This city was once the home of one of Ontario's biggest resorts, the Southwestern Regional Centre (SWRC) which I maintain is still our Golden Goose!  Mayor Hope calls the closing of this 1200 bed resort the biggest blow to Chatham-Kent’s economy from both a job and tax revenue basis; and I couldn’t agree more.   You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that agriculture, retirement living, tourism and gaming are the four cornerstones to bringing jobs back to Chatham-Kent.  The Dealtown Casino Hotel and Retirement Village initiative targets three of these cornerstones, which is why it is the Golden Goose.  The SWRC was a self-contained specialty resort but make no mistake, it was a resort and I contend that it can again become a thriving resort. My current initiative would include 100 retirement residence suites and a 200 room hotel which covers off two of those cornerstones.  The proposed casino adds the third leg and would deliver the resort attraction and related jobs.   You ask, “HOW MANY JOBS WOULD THIS GOLDEN GOOSE BRING TO CHATHAM-KENT?”  Let me share some FACTS with you.  I didn’t make these numbers up; they are derived directly from OLG reports and several economic impact studies on gaming in Canada.  The casino facility that is proposed for the Dealtown initiative is 2/3 (about 65%) the size of the Windsor, Rama and Niagara centres. It would have approximately 1500 slots, 52 table games and a bingo hall. This translates into 1,985 direct jobs, 1,489 indirect jobs and according to the experts another 752 induced jobs which experts say area a result of labour income spending.   That is a total of 4,227 jobs; that is four thousand two hundred and twenty seven new jobs, give or take.   Who controls the Golden Goose you ask!  Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is the gate keeper. Their generous contribution to Chatham-Kent currently consists of 84 direct, 63 indirect and 33 induced jobs which represent a whopping 0.212% of the total 85,433 jobs created and sustained in the Ontario gaming industry.   The problem is the Golden Goose is about to be killed and the only people that can save it are the folks at OLG and the Ontario Government.  Mayor Hope ran the idea up the flag pole at OLG and to use his words, “they were cool on the idea.”  Sure, OLG can provide $83,800,000 as its share to help build the new $165M casino on Scugog Island SW of Peterborough! Sure, OLG can make significant investments to expand OLG Slots at Ajax Down and OLG Slots at Georgian Downs and the renovations at OLG Casino Brantford.  It’s also nice that the City of Windsor and the City of Niagara Falls receive $3M a year from OLG, not to mention a recent $5.5M re-signing bonus payment to the Chippewa’s of Rama.   I have are major casino developers standing in line to finance this Golden Goose!  The $165 to 200M (+ or -) needed to renovate the SWRC is all private financing.  The City might need to put up a few signs; but unlike the Capital Theater goose, the Chatham-Kent tax payers will not be funding this initiative. So what is the problem, you ask?  Well, the SWRC is about to be sold for scrap and the property converted into a solar farm with a few new homes or even converted back into raw farm land.  If the city officials, the Ontario Government and the tax paying citizens of Chatham Kent let that happen, we will have another very big “dead duck” and nothing but a big goose egg for jobs!   Brian Keenan Chairman of the Dealtown Casino Initiative Bekeen@me.com

Media Awareness Campaign Launched in January

It was time to launch a media and political awareness campaign after being told that it was likely that the SWRC was being targeted for a solar farm by more than one group.  In addition, there were other groups seeking to purchase the property and demolish all the buildings for their scrap value. I simply didn't want to see this property sold before the Drummond Report was release because there was signals coming from the Ontario Government and OLG that the moritorium on resort casino's would soon be lifted to facilitate opening a casino in Toronto.  

Disappointed over lack of Dealtown casino support

Disappointed over lack of Dealtown casino support Posted 2 months ago Sir: There are three types of people in this world; those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. Well the "wonder what happened" group can bask in the sun and rejoice because support for the Dealtown Casino Hotel and Retirement Village has not materialized. The watchers watched and the wonderers wondered while I attempted to make things happen. Apparently, Chatham-Kent doesn't need the 1,500 full-time good-paying direct jobs or the construction and indirect jobs also estimated at upwards of 1-500. Apparently, local merchants and suppliers won't miss the millions of dollars that casino and resort employees, and the thousands of tourists would spend. I am not one to throw in the towel, but a one-man band does not play loud enough to be heard in this Municipality. Maybe I've spent too much time living in cities that get fired up when opportunity come walking in. Cleveland sure jumped on the casino bandwagon with their Horseshoe Casino when 11,800 applied for the first 500 dealer and supervisor positions. The table games staff will be the largest single staff at that new casino, accounting for roughly a third of the casino's 1,500 positions. Maybe the 100 jobs at Navistar will materialize, and maybe not. Maybe, that 900,000 square-foot complex will find another use, and maybe not. One thing is for sure Chatham needs more of those folks who make things happen. I'm disappointed, yes. But have I given up? No.   Brian Keenan Merlin

Follow-up Letter to Chatham Daily News that was not published...

To:      Chatham Daily News-  Sent the same day as my first letter was published under the heading "Reader Suggests Casino For SWRC Property" From:  Brian Keenan              Date:   Friday, November 04, 2011 Re:      YOU WANT JOBS? Letter to the Editor #2 There is a whole lot of “downtown development” going on and “YES” it is good for Chatham but who is going to occupy this residential, retail and office space?  The answer is simple, people and business’ from somewhere else in our community.  In other words, this development is just shuffling the deck but not adding new cards to it. Did the Capital Theater generate new jobs?  No! Did it attract new businesses to Chatham? No!  Will the new downtown residences bring new people to Chatham or just move them around?  Will all the new office space and hotel facilities bring new business’ to town or just create vacancy signs in other parts of town? I recently returned to Chatham after 40 years of living and working in places like, Toronto, Mississauga, Chicago, Tokyo, San Diego and Las Vegas.  The first thing I noticed was that the city had not grown, the downtown was dead, the factories were vacant and the high school graduates were leaving for university or collage somewhere else, never to return to Chatham because there are no NEW jobs. Yes, other cities in Ontario have suffered as well but does that mean nothing could be done? NO!  Our local leaders, and I don’t just mean the people at city hall, could and should, have done more.  When the automotive related jobs left Chatham did the leaders over the years do everything they could have to keep and bring new agriculture plants to Chatham Kent? NO, they even let that golden goose get away despite the fact that we are in the heart of Canada’s agriculture heartland.  O’ yes, our agriculture community does bring jobs to Southwestern Ontario, from Mexico, from Jamaica and from who-knows-where! Yes, the wind and solar energy development throughout Chatham-Kent has brought temporary jobs to our area although many of those are also from out-of-town or not permanent in nature.  Did we get any of the mega-plants that are bringing jobs to other cities in southern Ontario? NO! The problem is we think that City Hall is responsible for bringing these opportunities to town.  Yes, they have a big role in these the job creation and business retention initiatives but so do our other city leaders. A couple of our local business leaders and you know who they are, have invested their hard earned money into the downtown development initiative, as has an out-of-towner visionary more recently.  Why, because they see the opportunity and the potential for profit.  Thank God for capitalism! Can we all do more?  YES!  Do we need to be millionaires to be part of every solution? NO!  What we need to do, and that includes the small players like me and you, is to start using our combined brain power to make things happen.  I know what this means because in my 40 years away from Chatham, I made and lost millions of dollars as the founder and champion of many new ideas, like the International Computer Orphanage, like Bekeen Disaster Recovery, like Canada Computer, like SignCast and the list goes on. Recently I decided to become the “born again” visionary and entrepreneur that I once was. The creators of the once popular nationally syndicated Global Television series, Everybody’s Business, Kenneth Barnes and Everett Banning, once labeled me a visionary in their book “Money Makers! The Secrets of Canada’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs.”  These authors rightfully labeled me a visionary in their book.  They said that “Visionaries are sometimes, idealist; often they seem impractical, even a bit eccentric, as they push and pull the marketplace far beyond its present bounds.”  It’s been a while since that book was published and several ventures from the one that sparked their interest to write about me in that book.  In some ways I kind of wished my visionary days were behind me, but I guess it must be in my blood because I can’t stop coming up with these crazy or not so crazy ideas. I need to make a living and survive in these tough economic times, like everyone else.  I hope that selling real estate will cover that base!  But I owe it to myself, to my family, to my friend in Chatham, to use my many talents and vast experience to help bring NEW jobs to Chatham Kent.  To kick start this creativity, I have appointed myself the Chairman of the Dealtown Casino and Retirement Village initiative. Yes, I think the Southwestern Regional Centre is the perfect place to be transformed into a casino and retirement village.  Think about it; it’s already built and less money than what was thrown at the Capital Theater could kick start this initiative.  Think about it; the old regional center provided 600 full time jobs because it ran 24 by 7, 365 days of the year, just like a casino would.  The 235 acre property and 650,000 sq ft of buildings is already built and it is perfectly located to draw people from Kitchener to Kingsville.  Add a spacious RV park on the property and you will draw folks from all over to this waterfront oasis. I could go on and on as to why this is a great opportunity for Chatham Kent but this is not the place.  What I do ask is that you voice your opinion on this initiative and ask yourself if Chatham Kent could use 600 to 1000 new jobs, jobs that will bring our kids back home, jobs that will be created to support this facility, jobs that could replace those lost at Navistar, jobs that can fill those new condos and offices in downtown Chatham.  I need your help and support to make this happen and I need it now. -       30   -

The Beginning of the Dealtown Casino Initiative (DCI)

Why I started the Dealtown Casino Initiative (DCI) On October 23, 2011 I had a "Wakeup Call" and sent the following comment to the Editor of the Chatham Daily News.  It was subsequently published as a letter to the editor.  This was the starting point of my DCI campaign.   Letter to the Editor Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired of the way thing are going for you personally, for your family and friends, for the millions of unemployed in Canada and for whatever other cause you can think of?   Well, I am also and I’ve had it with this down and out felling!  This is the day that I become the born again visionary and entrepreneur that I once was. The creators of the once popular nationally syndicated Global Television series, Everybody’s Business, Kenneth Barnes and Everett Banning, once labeled me  a visionary in their book “Money Makers! The Secrets of Canada’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs.”   After many years and numerous leading edge business ventures, I returned to my roots, Chatham, Ontario where I was born and raised until my early twenties when I set out to make my fortunes.  Newly married in 2006 to the love of my life, Jo Ann, and living in Las Vegas where every day is exciting, I fell victim to a mild stroke.  Fortunately, I was later diagnosed as having Parkinson which in comparison is a blessing.  Nevertheless, health care in the US is a financial nightmare and in 2007 it drove me back Chatham, both sick and broke.   After a year of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to get off my butt and do something that everyone kept telling me I would be good at, namely selling real estate. It took nearly a year to get licensed but finally I got my ticket and was asked to join Chatham-Kent’s leading brokerage, Royal LePage Peifer Realty. I went from rookie to the top ten in three years and that brings us to today, give or take a whole lot in-between.   The authors of Money Makers rightfully labeled me a visionary in their book.  They said that “Visionaries are sometimes, idealist; often they seem impractical, even a bit eccentric, as they push and pull the marketplace far beyond its present bounds.”  It’s been a while since that book was published and several ventures from the one that sparked their interest to write about me in that book.  In some ways I kind of wished my visionary days were behind me, but I guess it must be in my blood because I can’t stop coming up with these crazy or not so crazy ideas.   I live on Talbot Trail just west of the hamlet of Dealtown, so appropriately named.  Every day I pass by a 300 acre facility, commonly referred to as the Southwestern Regional Centre.  Opened in 1961 this provincially operated facility housed developmentally disabled adults in an institutional setting. Originally designed to accommodate children under 10 years old it was the last massive institution built in Ontario for the treatment of the mentally disabled. In 1966 there was a resident population of 1,200 and a staff of 600. By 1979 the resident population had been reduced to 620 as changes in policy emphasized the use of smaller home like facilities. Later the centre shifted to serving adults and senior citizens.  The facility closed in 2008 following the government's decision to move from institutional based services to a community based approach.   Since closing, the facility and park-like property has fallen victim to neglect, vandalism and weather.  I call it a “crying shame” and a good example of how the government of Ontario under all leadership waists money.  There were rumors over the past few years that the facility would be brought back to life as a correctional institution, a seniors retirement centre and even a theme park but nothing ever came of these ideas.   Remember where I lived before returning to Chatham? Yes, I lived for half a dozen years in “Sin City” Las Vegas where there are more casinos than any other city in the world.  So it was only natural for me to think that the best use of the closed Southwestern Regional Centre was for a casino.  Add to that a seniors housing facility and a RV park and the old lady has a new face.  Where better to locate Chatham-Kent’s first and only casino, but in “Dealtown!”  You don’t need to be a rocket scientist or even a visionary to arrive at this conclusion.   I discussed my idea of a Dealtown Casino with some forward thinking Chathamites  who like the idea but say the government would never support such a venture because it made too much sense!  Why would the government want to support an initiative that would, could and will bring 600 to 1000 full and part time jobs to a municipality with 14% unemployment?  Why would the government want to stimulate the economy of Chatham-Kent which just lost its biggest employer; especially after they spent millions of dollars of  tax payer money in a failed attempt to keep it alive.   I have never been one to walk away from an idea when people said it couldn’t be done.  If no one else will carry the flag or should I say “Roll the Dice”, I certainly will! With that said, I have named myself the Chairman of the Dealtown Casino Initiative (DCI) and will gladly invest my valuable time to bring this idea to life in our community.  Please share your thoughts with me on this initiative.