First Nations urged to support gaming bill
Kahnawake is taking the lead in mobilizing First Nations across the country to support Bill S-268. The proposed law, if adopted, would enshrine those nations’ right to establish, conduct, and manage their own gaming businesses, such as casinos.
The Council table had previously been opposed to the bill but has since changed its tune after the senator that sponsored it agreed to push for amendments they’d asked for.
Senator Scott Tannas shared that commitment with The Eastern Door earlier this September.
The way the bill is currently worded doesn’t account for the online gaming industry – one the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) has long relied on to generate revenue for the community.
“We want to mobilize as many First Nations as we can to support Bill S-268, and to respond to any of the questions that the Senate may have in terms of actually being able to implement it,” said Council chief Paul Rice, the lead on the gaming file. “Kahnawake has a long history in the gaming industry, so we felt it was important for us to take the lead, and we want to share our knowledge.”
A memorandum of understanding the MCK hopes to sign with other First Nations over the bill was approved earlier this week at a regularly scheduled council meeting. Rice said so far the Tsuutʼina Nation in Alberta and the Whitecap Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan are on board with signing on.
“The memorandum of understanding is basically a mobilization of nations saying that we support and want to push and see Bill S-268 become a reality, so that it opens up economic development opportunities for as many nations as possible,” Rice said.
From there he hopes to see the coalition of First Nations deliver the collectively signed memorandum to Canada’s Senate, hopefully by the end of the month.
“There's dozens of other nations we want to sign on,” Rice said, saying they’re focusing on many that are already leaders in the industry. “It’s the three of us who've taken the lead, as not everybody has the resources and the time to push as hard as we're pushing it.”
The bill has so far gone through two readings in Senate. It will still need to be studied by two Senate committees before it gets to a reading in the House of Commons.
Both he and MCK grand chief Cody Diabo hope to visit Ottawa early next year to give a presentation about the bill’s wording to the legal Senate committee tasked with studying it.
Ever since the bill was proposed last year, numerous Council chiefs, including former MCK grand chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, have asked for a carveout to ensure it wouldn’t oppose Kahnawake’s right to access players online.
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In May, Sky-Deer and Diabo, then the lead on the gaming file, also met with senator Tannas to voice concerns they had about the bill’s first draft.
The bill currently states First Nations should be able to conduct and manage gaming on-reserve. That wording left ambiguity over whether that could block First Nations from engaging in online gaming, which attracts players from across the world, and as such can’t be limited to operating on one sole territory.
Tannas shared his commitment to push for amendments to the bill with The Eastern Door following a meeting between him and Rice earlier this fall in Tsuut'ina Nation. The two met then while at a gaming summit hosted there bringing together band council chiefs from across Canada.
