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FORT ST JOHN

City of Fort St. John

10631 100 Street   Fort St. John, BC   VU 3Z5
2507878150 City Hall
2507878181 Facsimile

The Energetic City

Premier John Morgan

PO Box 9041
STN Prov Govt
Victoria, BC V8W 9E1

September 3, 2020
File #0220-20
premier@gov.bc.ca

Dear Premier Morgan,

RE: CASINO REOPENINGS
The Fort St John Council is writing to voice our concern over the reopening timeline of casinos in the province. As
you're aware, casinos have been closed since March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our casino operations usually employs 107 people who are still unemployed with no indication of when they might
have a reliable paycheque. We are seeing some very difficult decisions being made causing further stress within these
families.

While we understand the need and effort to keep British Columbians safe during this unprecedented time, we find it
hard to understand why bars and nightclubs are able to safely operate, yet the highly regulated gaming industry
remains closed. Can each of these bars and nightclubs confirm that they have installed ventilation systems to ensure
that the air is replaced every 4 minutes?
Precedent setting decisions have been made in local governments to manage the financial impact of the COVID-19
crisis that is costing us on a daily basis. All this while the funds received by the local governments with Gaming
Centres and Casinos have dried up. Our community revenue has shrunk from $895,023 (fiscal 2018-2019) to $275,628
this year.

The safety of casino workers and patrons is paramount. With this in mind, we encourage the Province to use the work
safe guidelines as everyone else is to develop a safe reopening plan for casinos with a clearly laid out timeline.
Warm

cerman

Mayor
ec:

David Eby, Attorney General
BC Municipalities with casino operations