By Cheryl Jahn

Gaming grants need renewed attention

Jan 28, 2025 | 2:03 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Gaming grants came into play in BC in 2010 to, in the words of the Province, “support the delivery of ongoing programs and services that meet community-identified needs.”

But according to B.C.’s Official Opposition, the Province is sitting on a pile of money and they aren’t sharing. “I think it’s actually time to look at how gaming grants are issued,” says Rosalyn Bird, the Opposition Critic for Citizens’ Services. “The process in which they’re issued. If you have an organization like this Rescue Society, or if you have an organization, the Prince George Sexual Assault Centre, for example, that’s been operating for 40 plus years, for them to go to an extraordinary application process year to year to year really doesn’t make sense to me at this point.”

According to the Opposition, the BC Lottery Corporation reported a record net income from gaming of $1.6 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year, while the grants issued to various organizations has stalled at $140 million annually for nearly a decade.

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And one of the organizations that taps into those grants locally is near to Bird’s heart, providing a life-saving services, literally. The Prince George Highway Rescue Society.

“They’re a group that is strictly volunteer. They’ve been around for 20-plus years and they cover 24,000 square kilometres of area here in this region where they rescue individuals that are in, horrific accidents that police, fire and ambulance can’t attend.”

She says their equipment is bought and paid for through things bake sales and bottle drives. And, of course, gaming grants.

Gaming grants to the City go into general revenue to help offset the costs of things like snow removal.

“Yeah we get 10 per cent of the net gaming revenues,” says Councillor Brian Skakun, who brought up the issue during budget discussions. “The Province called it a destination casino years ago when we re-zoned it. So I mean that works out to $3.7 million. It goes towards general revenue, some towards policing costs and so. But you know it’s not enough in my opinion.”

Skakun has moved the issue to a special Intergovernmental Affairs Committee with one mission in mind—online gaming.

“The BC Lottery Corporation, last year, their net was $1.5 billion overall. And online gambling is just taking off. Countrywide there is something like $40-something billion and the Province of BC was $400- almost $500-million in online gambling last year. And what we’re saying is they’ll give it to community groups and different grants, but give the municipalities a share of that money as well, because we never calculated that in years ago.”

Bird says the whole system needs an overhaul.

“I think not only should we be looking at how much money we’re bringing into gaming and how much is going back to communities, but maybe we need to look at the entire process from the ground up and sort of see if we can make it more effective, more efficient and better benefit communities, which is what it was intended to do.”

In the meantime, Skakun says he will bring up the matter of gaming and online gaming, in particular, at the next North Central Local Government Association meeting in May.