Toronto Star – For the third time in two-and-a-half years a judge has slapped down the Ontario government and the OLG for failing to honour a revenue sharing agreement it made 13 years ago with a consortium of 132 Ontario First Nations.
The case begins with a 2008 revenue sharing agreement between the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and the Ontario First Nations Limited Partnership (OFNLP). In that agreement, the province is required to give 1.7 per cent of three types of revenue streams to the OFNLP — gambling revenue from sources like lotteries and casino gaming, plus two types of non-gambling revenue such as hotel stays and food and beverage. But while privatizing the operations of casinos in the province, the OLG unilaterally agreed to allow private operators to keep all non-gambling revenue and did not inform its First Nations partners about the changes, conduct one judge on a three-judge arbitration panel in 2019 called “breathtaking in the age of reconciliation.”
The Sept. 1 ruling by the Court of Appeal upholds an earlier Superior Court ruling that the provincial government and the OLG breached the terms of that landmark revenue-sharing agreement, even though the OLG no longer receives cash from the two non-gambling revenue streams. The 2008 deal was struck to settle a $2-billion claim over an earlier agreement that entitled the First Nations to a share of revenue from the Casino Rama complex, which is located on the reserve lands of The Chippewas of Rama First Nation, near Orillia. After years of negotiation that included high-level government officials and solemn ceremonies in accordance with First Nations tradition, the province and the OFNLP agreed to a 25-year deal.
The rulings state that the crown corporation was aware that its decision to exclude the two revenue streams could lead to less revenue for the OFNLP, yet did not disclose this. “At the meeting with OFNLP’s board of directors in December 2015, the chairman of OLG’s board of directors stated that it was ‘time to enter an era of respect’ between OLG and First Nations,” the ruling stated, adding, “But he failed to tell OFNLP’s board about the plan to stop sharing (the two revenue streams) with First Nations.”
Around that time, the OLG told the provincial Ministry of Finance about its plan to stop sharing the two revenue streams with the First Nations partnership. But the ruling states “no one within the Ontario government ever told” the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, which was responsible for administering the agreement at the time.
The OFNLP only found out about the OLG’s decision in June 2016, through a footnote in an audited revenue statement.