PCs' Niagara Vegas-ification plan bigger than adding more casinos

Premier Doug Ford's government plan to Las Vegas-ify Niagara Falls is merely a piece of a larger strategy to invigorate the larger region and attract visitors to it for longer, Ontario's tourism, culture and gaming minister explained on Wednesday.

The Ford government has been working on renegotiating the six-year-old agreement between the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) and Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment that makes the company the exclusive operator of casinos in the Niagara Region, as The Trillium first reported last month. The government wants to end Mohegan's "monopoly," the premier said a week ago, which Niagara Falls' mayor has endorsed.

On Wednesday, in response to questions from Liberal MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon during a parliamentary committee meeting, Tourism, Culture and Gaming Minister Stan Cho explained that the government's "Niagara strategy" hopes to encourage people to many of the region's offerings.

"We have world class wineries ... we have deep water in Port Colborne — cruise ships are docking there, there's the Great Lakes Tours that are touring all around the Great Lakes. You have some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet. ... You have Niagara-on-the-Lake with a vibrant theatre programming (and) beautiful wineries," Cho said.

"All of this within 30 minutes to a world-class attraction — the seventh wonder of the world in Niagara Falls. ... What we have not done is connect all of that," the tourism minister added.

"We have everything we need," Cho said. "We just need to unlock it in the Niagara region."

Cho said casino gaming is "but one piece of what we are saying we want the Niagara strategy to be."

While responding to McMahon's questions on Wednesday, Cho a few times compared Niagara Falls to Las Vegas, suggesting the north-of-the-border city hasn't lived up to its potential, unlike the famous southern destination.

"When I was first tasked with looking at a Niagara strategy, I made a couple dozen phone calls to business community leaders, and I asked them ... 'When's the last time you went to Niagara Falls — not for work, but for vacation.' And I got exclusively one of two answers: not since I was a kid, or, never," explained Cho. 

"Now, I challenge you to ask a city of a similar size, with similar access to a destination like Niagara Falls ... let's take L.A. for example: ask any of the same people in L.A. if that's the case about Las Vegas, 'When's the last time you Las Vegas?' And the answer will be drastically different," he added.

Niagara's "connectivity," Cho said, could benefit from more "amusement parks" and "fine dining," he suggested on Wednesday. 

In his last significant cabinet shakeup a few months ago, Ford signalled his government viewed gaming with greater importance by adding it to a new ministerial portfolio. The premier made Cho the province's minister of tourism, culture and gaming — which includes responsibility for the OLG — on June 6.

For a couple of Ford's Progressive Conservatives' first mandate, before Ford appointed Cho to his first of a few cabinet roles, he'd been parliamentary assistant to the minister of finance, who previously oversaw the OLG.

"We refer to it as building Las Vegas of the north," Cho said on Wednesday. "Well, I look forward to the day where we don't have to say that (and) it's 'Niagara Falls' and you can call other places the Niagara Falls of the south, or the east, or the west."

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.