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…"
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