Raise the Hammer

The contrast between the approaches taken and the decisions made by the City of Hamilton Board of Health and the City of Toronto Board of Health on the casino expansion issue is startling.

At the Toronto Board of Health Meeting on November 19, 2012, they received the November 7, 2012 report from the Medical Officer of Health and listened to him give a presentation on The Health Impacts of Gambling Expansion in Toronto. They also listened to six other speakers. This culminated in the Toronto Board of Health making a detailed nine point decision including an endorsement of the report made by their Medical Officer of Health and a recommendation to city council “…that based on health evidence pointing to severe health risks associated with gambling, that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) not be invited to expand gambling in the City of Toronto.”

Here are the Minutes of the City of Toronto Board of Health meeting on November 19, 2012: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaIt...

At the Hamilton Board of Health meeting on December 3, 2012, they voted to receive Dr. Richardson’s report which had been distributed to them on November 29, 2012 and refer it to the Gaming Facility Proposal Subcommittee for deliberation. No presentations. No discussions except for a few questions from Councillor Farr. No endorsements. No recommendations. It appears that they did not even table Dr. Richardson’s report for further discussion by the Board of Health.

Here are the Minutes of the City of Hamilton Board of Health meeting on December 3, 2012: http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/E61F...

The mandate of the Hamilton Board of Health includes a duty “To consider and recommend to council on policy matters and emerging issues related to public health.” At its meeting on December 3, 2012, the Hamilton Board of Health failed to duly consider Dr. Richardson’s report and it failed to make any recommendations to council. It even failed to table the report for further discussion. Instead, it steered its decision-making authority to a five member Gaming Facility Proposal Subcommittee that has no mandate to make health decisions for the Hamilton community. The Gaming Facility Proposal Subcommittee will probably need to refer it back to the Hamilton Board of Health for consideration.

Comment edited by RenaissanceWatcher on 2012-12-10 19:01:25