Montreal Casino Revamp Rejected

As reported by the McGill Daily: "The $1.2-billion project to revamp the Montreal Casino and move it to a working-class district was axed on Friday after a ten-month anti-casino campgain was successful in preventing the initiative.

"Community groups and residents of the Sud-Ouest borough of Montreal, where the new casino and entertainment complex was to be constructed, mobilized against the project, arguing that it would further aggravate the social problems in Pointe St. Charles, a neighbourhood that currently has one of the highest poverty rates in Canada.

"Proponents of the project had marketed the complex as a way of attracting over 6,000 new jobs and revitalizing the neighbourhood, where about half of the families live below the poverty line. However, residents argued that the casino would increase the already alarming number of problem gamblers in the area.

"…The governments of Quebec and Montreal both initially supported the plan to move the casino from its current location on Île Notre-Dame, but as popular pressure increased and the governments' own committees came out against the proposal, it became politically dangerous to support the project…"