For immediate release

BAN VLTs

Sunday, October 22, 2006

WINNIPEG – Winnipeg’s six Green candidates say that this council election is not just a referendum on the proposed OlyWest slaughterhouse. It’s also a referendum on VLTs.

The Greens say that they will make a council motion to hold a binding plebiscite to ban VLTs within city limits, including provincial government casinos, under the provincial Gaming Control Local Option (VLT) Act.

"If you get why it’s wrong to raise revenue by operating government crack houses, then you'll get why it’s wrong to do so with VLTs", said Green Party St. Vital candidate Markus Buchart. "The City of Winkler got it and banned VLTs in 1999. We want to do it, too."

In wards where there are no Green candidates, the party says they want voters to ask their candidates where they stand on a VLT ban and vote for those who unequivocally support it. Six Green councillors plus two others would force a plebiscite.

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The Green Party's six candidates are:

Markus Buchart - St.Vital
David J. Danyluk - Elmwood - East Kildonan
Robert Galston - Mynarski
Constance Menzies - St. James - Brookland
Stephen Smith - Transcona
Glenda Whiteman - St. Norbert

For more information, contact Markus Buchart at 943-1506.

Background

In October 28, 1998, the citizens of the Town of Winkler voted 77.8 percent in favour of banning VLTs in a plebiscite. Although the plebiscite was not legally binding, the town council passed a resolution to ban VLTs.

In 1999, the Government of Manitoba passed The Gaming Control Local Option (VLT) Act:

The Act permits citizens to ban VLTs from their municipality by a majority vote in a plebiscite that is binding on their municipal council. The plebiscite can be triggered in two ways. A council can either pass a resolution to hold a plebiscite or citizens can force their council to hold one by submitting a petition signed by ay least 20 percent of the municipality’s voters. The Act is binding on the Crown. That means that a VLT ban passed under the Act would apply to VLTs in provincial government casinos.

The Act explicitly ratified the Winkler plebiscite as though it had been held under the Act after it was passed.

A Winkler hotel owner who lost his VLT site licence as a result of the Winkler plebiscite sued the Government of Manitoba, arguing that the Act was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Canada eventually decided the case of Siemens v. Manitoba (Attorney General) on October 31, 2002. A unanimous court ruled that the Act was constitutional.

In 1999, the provincial government announced that municipalities which ban VLTs would lose their share of VLT revenue. Shortly afterwards, the Province reversed its policy. Winkler got its cheque. The town council, however, decided that it was unethical to continue receiving income from gamblers’ losses and returned the cheque to the Province. Winkler has not accepted any VLT money since.

[Winkler was made a City in 2002. Its telephone number is (204) 325-9524. Mr. Neil Schmidt has been the City’s mayor since the VLT ban plebiscite. He is not running for re-election.]

Winnipeg received a VLT transfer of $7 million from the province last year. This year, it is budgeted to receive $8.8 million.

The Winnipeg Greens will use the council vote method to trigger a plebiscite. The Winnipeg Greens, including its elected councillors, will actively campaign in favour of the ban in the lead-up to Winnipeg’s plebiscite.

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