The Ottawa Sun n Friday, July 5, 2013

NEWS

15

An Open Letter to the Citizens of Ottawa We count on our civic institutions to manage their responsibilities with transparency, to govern with fairness and to set the rules accordingly. City Hall is one of Ottawas most important civic institutions; one that is ultimately responsible for shaping the future successes and prosperity of our great city. In recent weeks, I have made it no secret how disappointed I am over Mayor Jim Watsons motion to single-handedly sole source the location of Ottawas new casino. He may deny it is sole sourcing, but it is. This open letter is not about gaming in Ottawa. Rather, it is about a municipal government that is on the verge of circumventing due process yet again. What many people may not be entirely aware of is the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) ofcially began their process to evaluate and assess the introduction of new gaming facilities in July 2010. The OLG then issued a Request for Information (RFI) in May 2012, followed in November 2012 with a Request for Pre-Qualication (RFPQ) specic to the boundaries of the established Ottawa Gaming Bundle. These timelines are important to understand. You should be aware that I have participated fully in the OLG process, and in doing so have invested a substantial amount of time and resources. The process is highly structured and governed by strict rules as set forth by the OLG. My efforts pre-date the OLG process, as I actively began working on our organizations internal casino strategy as early as 2006. When you consider those timelines, it hopefully becomes easier to grasp the level of my disappointment towards the Mayor and his motion to abandon process, and shut interested proponents from submitting alternative site proposals for Ottawas new casino. I was literally blindsided. To be clear, I am making no demands to the Mayor or Council that the casino be located on my 76 acre site in the west end of Ottawa. There will likely be several good sites in the city that should be given full and due consideration. All that I ask is for City Hall to outline a site selection process that is fair, transparent and competitive; one that will yield the best, overall, long-term benets for Ottawa taxpayers. A few Councillors suggest I am too late to the process. I am puzzled as to how I could be late to a process that has yet to begin. For the record, Council has never issued an ofcial call for interest to casino proponents. There is simply no process when the Mayor chooses to pre-emptively favour one constituent over another. We have seen this before at City Hall and it is time for taxpayers to put a stop to this once and for all. All I can do as one individual who truly cares about the future of Ottawa is make my own best effort to hold our Mayor and Councillors to account. I would urge you to do the same. An absence of process at City Hall should no longer be tolerated by taxpayers. We should all have higher hopes and expect more from the elected leadership of our nations capital. Sincerely,

Eugene Melnyk Owner, Governor & Chairman Ottawa Senators Hockey Club