As published on page A1/A2 on November 4, 2005
VLT opponent's policy crusade comes up snake eyes with Volpé
Finance minister says province has no intention of changing its policy
By Kathy Kaufield
Telegraph-Journal
The New Brunswick government won't reduce the number of video lottery terminals or their hours of operation anytime soon, says Finance Minister Jeannot Volpé.
In fact, the province won't change its VLT policy at all in the near future unless another jurisdiction makes a "major" change that the government feels it must follow.
"We believe that what we've got now is working," Mr. Volpé said Thursday. "I think we are ready to keep what we've got unless there is major change somewhere that could be done that could improve what we've got."
New Brunswick's finance department is reviewing its entire gambling policy, including discussions on VLTs and racinos. The government promised the review after Saint John resident Tim Smith, a former VLT addict, staged a hunger strike at the legislature earlier this year.
This week, Nova Scotia pulled the plug on 800 VLT machines as part of Premier John Hamm's responsible-gaming strategy.
Mr. Volpé said the province won't follow suit at this point and neither will they reduce the hours of operation of the machines.
The news didn't come as a surprise to Mr. Smith but he said he still feels deceived by Mr. Volpé and the provincial government for promising him they'd seriously review their policy so that he would end his hunger strike. Mr. Smith suggested reducing the number of machines and their hours of operation. He'd like to see the machines run only from 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. as opposed to from 10 a.m. to 2:30 a.m..
Mr. Smith, who went on two hunger strikes this year to push for changes to the policy, said he doesn't believe the province actually did a review.
"They reneged on everything... They didn't do a thing. Nothing," Mr. Smith said. "I put my life on the line. I put my child in care and could have died either one of those two times to save somebody else's life and they didn't even want to discuss it. To me that is absolutely sickening."
He claimed more people are committing suicide and resorting to crime because of addiction to VLTs.
On Thursday, Mr. Volpé described the gaming review as more of an information-gathering exercise.
"It's more for, I would say, discussion or information purposes that all the work has been done. We've done our work as a department to bring all the details of what's needed to be known," he said. "Now it's a question of are we doing anything with it or just leaving it the way we are, keeping the status quo."
He said the work on the VLT portion of the gambling policy is complete.
"We are just looking at what the recommendation should be or if there is any recommendation that will come out," he said.
Last spring, Mr. Volpé said the province would consider holding public hearings on VLTs in the province. Now he says there's no need for them because the government doesn't have any plans to present for input.
He said New Brunswick has a lower addiction rate than Nova Scotia and prior to the removal of 800 machines there, also had fewer of machines per capita.
Other province are changing their policies on VLTs. Newfoundland announced a plan this spring that would reduce the number of VLTs in the province by 15 per cent over five years. Quebec is removing more than 2,500 VLTs from neighbourhood bars and putting them into centralized gaming parlours.
Ontario has imposed a moratorium on casino expansion, British Columbia has said it won't put VLTs in bars and lounges and Alberta has set a goal to reduce the number of locations with VLTs up to 15 per cent. In Nova Scotia, the government has said it plans to reduce the number of VLTs and their hours of operation, but is not considering a ban.
Manitoba plans to add to its stock of VLTs.
![New Gaurd at the Legislature[1]](http://static.flickr.com/19/23552244_16f88b1a02.jpg)
With files from Canadian Press.
13 comments:
This means they lied through their teeth when they (Lord's Ministers) promised Tim that they would act upon Tim's recommendation. Saint John Harbour voters must remember that and not vote for Lord's candidate. Lord lies and his ministers lie. Hooton may not be much different.
You might want to link to published articles, rather than reprint them. I'm not sure, but you could be in violation of copyright laws.
He is giving full credit where he got the article. Moreover, blogger is not making any money out of it. If anything it advertise the paper free. What more Telegraph Journal can ask for.
I sure wish that I was making money for this...lol...it would be great!!!!
Did they lie? I thought they told Tim they'd review their rules, not change them. I remember thinking at the time they got away with a fast one.
Just another fine example of the lies and smoke screens this Governing Party has perfected to the public.
Mr Lord and his ministers all agreed at the time that my proposals for responsible regulations were as they had quoted(MORE THAN REASONABLE!)on more than one occasion and that something needed to be done soon to help curb the roughly 15-18 suicides per year from VLT addiction as well as the personal distruction to families and loved ones in New Brunswick.
In March of this year Mrs.Blaney was so sure that the discussions were going well with her imaginary meetings that she had sent me an email in which she had said things are going so well that it was looking like an early spring anouncement is now a possibility.
Which I had brought to Fredericton in May to show the public that she indeed send an email on this issue stating that fact.
Also in one of many phone conversations with me she said, you know that I will throw everything available to me at this issue so please don't give up.
I can assure you that I will not either, you are right something has to change, Mr.Lord has given me this file and I intend to help and will not give up.((Mrs Blaney))
She had finished with God bless you and your daughter Tim and don't worry we'll do something,Hang in there.
But Mr.Lord decided to blindside her when he appeared on Voice of the province in April saying that he had read a study out of Manitoba that said New Brunswick had the least amount of suicides in Canada so there was now no need for changes to the current way in which this government is running(exploiting) the VLT program.
Basicly he was saying that 2004 was a record year for prophets from VLT addiction which has now been revieled to be about 141 Million Dollars in a Province of less than 3/4s of a Million people.
But things have taken a turn on this Government as Prophets hit an all time low within the last year. Mr.Volpe would not release the numbers but said and I quote(This is the first time that it's been this low in Many,Many,Many,Many years)as printed in a Telegraph Journal story a few weeks back.
He went on to say, I believe it's because of the new smoking ban and do not believe this drop in revenue has anything to do with Mr.Smith's protest or the publicity that surrounded it.
But on that note most VLT addicts say the smoking ban has had little to no effect on their addiction to VLTs as there are signs provided to hold the machine to step out for a smoke at anytime they like.
Also since that time there has been a decrease in VLTs in the uptown area of Saint John due to Failing businesses among other reasons as one owner has said,I was so hooked on the prophets of my VLTs that I neglected to take care the rest of my business but by the time I did it was too late there were no more customers.(Like to remain Anonymous)
I will not except that there will be no Responsible Regulations put in place and this will continue until there is a space put in for these addicts to move about within their communities without having to fight temptations of O.C.D.(obsessive compulsive disorder)in which the Government is Exploiting to this day in the name of overwhelming profits.
I believe at the time I read something to the effect; (We have narrowed it down and are now looking at two of Mr.Smith's recomendations that again are more than reasonable) I've been trying to find this I believe this was said by Mrs.Blaney in print as well as on the news. hope this helps.
Darrell B. how long it will take just looking at it. May be until 2007 and then elections will be called. Then you will keep looking at it.
Minister Volpe said very clearly no change is required whatsoever.
There is also an article in todays TJ about the Racino at Exhibition Park.
What a joke "Entertainment My As*!"
"I'm generally not a big proponent of gaming and gambling"
This is one of the first sentences to come directly from Mr.Lord's own mouth in the story from the paper,If this is the case then where was that belief when he was asked to reduce the hours of operation on vlts to help the addicted problem gamblers gain a small amount of freedom throughout the day instead of him holding them prisoner to their addiction all day long and call it entertaining?
This man certainly has a way of playing with words at his own convienience.
I just returned from driving my daughter home to her apartment in the South End.
There were 3 people lined up waiting to get at the VLT's in Pizza Shack on Charlotte Street.
Tim. You sure have your work cut out for you!
yes that's too true because like anything else you have to not only fight the system to get proper representation for the weaker of our society you have to take on an addicted government and finance department that find this all entertaining to discriminate and exploit O.C.D. for the sake of profit instead of openly and honestly helping these communities and give them some freedom of choice
on these vlts by lifting the time to later in the day instead of calculating how much they might rake in on the first coffee break of the morning from all those addicted around the province.
I'm suprised there were only three on a satuday night in that spot it's usually alot higher than that.
Thank you for your comment.
They will take and take from the people and if the lose their lives or families; who cares we are just S>I>N> # to them and tax dollars. Premier Lord was not born with a Heart just a money vault.
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