CORNWALL, Ontario – Cornwall City Councillor Mark MacDonald suggested on Twitter that Cornwall should seek to bring a casino to the city as a way of generating economic growth.
His suggestion is a part of his call to develop the city in general.
He said with changes in technology and casino gaming, the city could bring in a type of casino centred around local games like bingo, pull-tabs and Nevada tickets, all in their electronic versions.
MacDonald explained that in general he wanted to see the city and his fellow councillors focus on growing the city rather than looking towards cuts or tax increases to solve their budget problems.
“I think we should be investing in growth and development,” MacDonald said in an interview with Seaway News.
MacDonald pointed to a variety of properties owned by Cornwall that he felt were being under-utilized.
He said that the old Aardvark club on First St. should be bulldozed to expand the city owned parking lot. MacDonald also pointed to the now vacant site of the old Bob Turner Arena, saying that the city’s new fire station could be built there.
MacDonald said that the only way to tackle long term financial problems was to grow.
“The biggest thing we as a council have to do is tackle the long term financial challenges of the city,” he said. “We should be modernizing with the latest technology. We have land we can develop now.”
Councillor MacDonald criticized the suggestion that the City’s financial problems could be fixed by cutting the budget.
“It’s like Old Mother Hubbard, you go back to the cupboard, but the cupboard is bare,” he said. “To cut is to delay.”
The City of Cornwall’s Economic Development Officer Bob Peters said that attracting a casino is something that the city had looked at in the past, but that ultimately, it was something that was out of their hands.
Peters explained how casinos are run by the province and ultimately it is the province who decides where new casinos are built.
