July 27th, 2008 by Casino4U | Posted in Casino Rama, News, Land Casinos | No Comments »
Seen at the Canadian Press
Jun 27, 2008
OTTAWA — Ontario government lawyers are looking into Casino Rama payments made to a First Nation that doesn’t officially exist, and at least one chief, Chief Wilfred King of the Gull Bay First Nation in northern Ontario, is urging a formal probe and investigation. Grand Council Chief, John Beaucage, is also planning to raise the matter at an upcoming meeting of Ontario Grand Chiefs.
Earlier this month, the Chiefs of Ontario voted to de-list and cut off the Poplar Point First Nation, a so-called “near band” that operated out of a storefront in Thunder Bay in Ontario. A phone number posted online is now out of service, and the federal Indian Affairs department says it doesn’t recognize the community. A man claiming to be its hereditary leader and a small group of supporters began receiving Rama cash that has totalled about $3 million over a period of 10 years .
Chief Wilfred King says the Poplar Point members are actually on his own band list, something they conceded at an assembly meeting before chiefs voted to turf them as an accepted band. King wants the investigations to bring to light why funds from Casino Rama near Orillia, Ont. flowed for a decade to a “phoney community.” The funds were meant to help lift Ontario reserves out of poverty. Chief King had fruitlessly tried for years to get the Chiefs of Ontario to act.
Though Ontario lawyers for the province are looking into the Poplar Point issue, the Ontario minister responsible for casinos and acting spokeswoman for George Smitherman, Amy Tang, said that the province has no plans at this time to intervene. She issued this statement on Friday but added that the province had their legal department looking at the issues surrounding such a particular case. She further stated that:
“It’s up to the Chiefs of Ontario to oversee how Casino Rama money is disbursed by a five-member management board called the Ontario First Nations Limited Partnership - We do respect that governing structure that they’ve put in place.”
Since the de-listing of Poplar Point, 132 First Nations will now receive Rama cash instead of 133. The First Nations are all required to ensure they spend a total of about $60 million a year in five approved areas: community development, health, education, economic or cultural development and to submit yearly reports reflecting the requirement. However, such spending accounts are not subject to value-for-money scrutiny by provincial auditors under the terms of a complex deal with the government.This is due to the fact that gambling revenues are never entered into the provincial coffers and are further held in trust by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. before going directly to reserves through the First Nations partnership group.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, watchdogs over public spending, has repeatedly raised concerns over the lack of accessible Rama reporting. Only after a lengthy freedom-of-information fight with the province were the Poplar Point payments, cited in Rama audits, released in May to The Canadian Press.
John Beaucage, grand council chief of the Union of Ontario Indians, says his 42 member First Nations struck Poplar Point from the union’s list of bands years ago because of its lack of effort to be recognized by Ottawa; however, the broader Chiefs of Ontario assembly failed to act quickly as Rama payments continued to flow. Beaucage stated:
”I guess they were given the benefit of the doubt, … And once they were in … the so-called process, you just sort of go about all the other things you’ve got to worry about. … Maybe if there was a criminal aspect to it … a fraudulent misrepresentation, then an investigation should be launched by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).”
The Grand Council Chief plans to raise the matter in a meeting next month with the political confederacy of Ontario grand chiefs.
