Nova Scotia and Indian Brook Gaming Agreement
A new gaming deal between the Indian Brook First Nation and the provincial government of Nova Scotia has become the subject of some controversy.
Indian Brook is the largest land settlement of the Shubenacadie band. Though this agreement is being promoted as the beginning of a new era of gambling-backed prosperity for the First Nation band, it actually seeks to reduce dependency on gambling.
According to the Shubenacadie Band Council, the agreement cuts the previous allocation of video lottery terminals (VLTs) to the Indian Brook First Nation in exchange for a cash payment reported to be about $1.2 million.
The Band Council stated that this amount would be earmarked for the CMHC Replacement Reserve Fund and possible Christmas bonus. The reserve fund needs to be brought up to date so that Indian Brook receives their allotted houses.
The creation of the reserve fund is part of the First Nation's agreement with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., which is Canada's national housing agency. There is no clarity on the Christmas bonus issue and officials in Canada Mortgage, the provincial government and the band council were non-committal about various details of the agreement.
Reduced VLT Allocation to Indian Brook
Nancy McInnis Leek, who is in charge of First Nations gaming for the provincial Office of Aboriginal Affairs, explained that the deal is a "community transition agreement". The objective is to provide funds for community economic development so that the First Nations bands can get off the dependency or the need for gaming revenue.
The new agreement allows the Indian Brook First Nation to operate 145 VLTs, instead of 175 VLTs allowed in the previous agreement in effect from the mid-1990s. According to McInnis Leek, this should not be a problem because the band was operating only 80 VLTs. She also stated that the new agreement tightens up issues of accountability and regulation of gaming on the reserve, which had previously been "very fuzzy".
A former chief of the Shubenacadie band, Alexander McDonald, had earlier made
a statement that more than three-quarters of the band's gambling patrons are
band members. Probably, this is the type of situation that the provincial
government wants to avoid.
McInnis Leek said, "It's always a concern if you have VLTs in a small community. We have that issue with the casino. The casino is not bringing in people from outside of Nova Scotia. We're basically Nova Scotians gaming. That's always a problem, because it's not economic growth."
