The City is Gambling on Employment

City council has voted 25 to 19 to support expanded gaming at Woodbine, along with the promise of an entertainment complex that would include retail, restaurants and a hotel, and all with the promise of secure, unionized jobs.

Those in opposition seem to be basing their arguments primarily on the potential for problem gambling. Councillors Kristyn Wong-Tam and Raymond Cho both used personal stories of family members with gambling addictions.

Global News recently compiled data that says problem gamblers are concentrated near casinos and racetracks, but Woodbine has already expanded to 3,000 gaming machines from the 1,700 it had in 2000. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health, in May released a report that discouraged expanded gambling at Woodbine or new opportunities downtown. It concluded that the impact on neighbourhood crime, both violent and property crime, would be neutral or negative. Shift work could negatively affect the health of employees, but that would be the case even if a new manufacturer moved in, and few would object to that. The provision of new local jobs would, overall, improve neighbourhood health. Traffic volume and congestion were likely to increase and consequently worsen health, but for me that argument holds a lot more water downtown than at Woodbine.

Problem gambling, it reported, would lower self-reported general health and well-being, including more colds and flus (also caused by, say, excessive sitting in airplanes).

But for me it all misses the point. It isn’t the job of government to decide morality or mitigate potential addiction, as heart wrenching as it can be. It’s their job to pave roads, police the streets and to stimulate jobs by providing favourable conditions. Leaving this corner of Rexdale, which has seen a 26% decline in employment in the last 10 years, in underemployed limbo isn’t the answer. Hopefully, expansion at Woodbine is.

I don’t minimize the potential harmful effects of gambling addiction, but when I checked it last night, a poll on The Star’s website showed more than 70% for expansion. It is the government’s job to do what their constituents want.

There are alcoholics in this city, and we don’t prevent new bars from opening. We still sell cigarettes in corner convenience stores, and we don’t prevent people from opening more of them.

Expansion at Woodbine could bring another $7 million to $11 million into city coffers yearly. As GM of YMCA’s Rexdale Employment Centre said, the prospect of more local jobs gives people the opportunity to work where they live, which is paramount to building well balanced, successful mixed-use communities.

Frankly, the only thing that really scares me is that I find myself in agreement with Rob Ford.

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Royal LePage this week released a report that says Toronto’s housing market is in for another boom year. They’re predicting a rise in home prices of nearly 10% over 2014, with increases expected in all categories. Condos in our market averaged just over $400,000 in the second quarter this year, with two-storey detached reaching a mind-blowing $834,728.

“A global trend is that citizens want to live in and around the downtown core, and Toronto is no different,” said senior VP Gino Romanese. “Demand for these properties far outstrips the supply, which is why we have seen such robust price appreciation over the past few years.”

He surmises that would-be urban buyers are delaying purchase until the Pan Am Games are over and congestion returns to its normal (still crazy) levels. While the end of the year saw a decent supply of new condos, new builds are coming slowly. Continued low interest rates, predicted to come down further, continues to stimulate the market, which leaves 2015 looking like another record year.

Although the Bank of Canada says our homes may be overvalued by up to 30%, we’ve been hearing predictions of bubbles bursting for years now, and they haven’t been right yet.