Comment 85942

By RenaissanceWatcher (registered) | Posted February 06, 2013 at 23:58:24

Thank you for your informative letter to Hamilton city council, Dr. Kates. One hopes that council gives it the attention that it deserves. However, it is difficult to be hopeful given the scant attention the Hamilton Board of Health has paid to the public health dimension of casino issue to date.

On December 3, 2012, a report titled "Health and Social Impacts of Gambling" by Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, Medical Officer of Health for the City of Hamilton, was received by the Hamilton Board of Health and referred to the Gaming Facility Proposal Subcommittee without discussing the report or adopting any of its recommendations.

Here is the link to Dr. Richardson's report: http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/319C...

And here is the link to the Minutes of the Hamilton Board of Health meeting on December 3, 2012: http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/319C...

On February 4, 2013, the Hamilton Board of Health approved the Minutes of their December 3, 2012 meeting with no discussion or amendments: http://hamilton.siretechnologies.com/sir...

The Hamilton Board of Health has a mandate "To consider and recommend to Council on policy matters and emerging issues on Public Health". http://hamilton.siretechnologies.com/sir...

It is unconscionable that the Hamilton Board of Health has not even discussed Dr. Richardson's report or adopted any of the recommendations made in the report at this late date. Their next meeting is on March 18, 2013. It is therefore possible that Hamilton city council will make one of the most important local public health decisions of this century (i.e. whether to permit a downtown casino) by the March 1, 2013 deadline with no direct input from its own Board of Health. That would be more than unconscionable. That would be illegal.

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds