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Band council stops Elected Chiel's "secret" casino deal By Lynda Powless Editor Six Nations Band Council has put the brakes on a moue by Elected Chief Bill Montour to bring VLT type casino gaming machines to Six Nations, without their knowledge, with secret investors, and with a company his wife works for, Turtle Island News has learned. But Elected Chief Montour said council knew about the plan, had passed a resolution and staff's inability to get minutes to council in a timely fashion may be at the root of the community losing "a very lucrative opportu- nity," he said. During a closed meeting last Monday (May 27) band councillors were told a plan was in place to put about 40 VLTs (slot machines) in a room at the bingo hall on Pauline Johnson Road. The plan, councillor Helen Miller said, would have also allowed unknown local in- vestors to operate the same machines in their businesses for a 90 day trial period. The plan came to light when bingo hall staff were ordered by elected Chief Bill Montour 's wife, Pam Mon- tour, to clear out a room at the bingo hall in anticipation of gaming equipment arriv- ing, from the Nova Scotia gaming supply company she is on contract with. Six Nations Band Council- lor Helen Miller confirmed band council had passed a motion in March, to allow Elected Chief Bill Montour to "explore" casino or gaming here. their places, too." She said Elected Chief Bill Montour refused to tell council who the investors were when questioned by councillor Ava Hill. Elected Chief Bill Montour "The Chief wouldn't tell us who they were." She said he claimed his wife had been hired to work with other First Nations, not Six Nations. "He (Chief Montour) didn't say any- thing when copies of the emails she (Pam Montour) sent to staff were read to him," Miller said. The deal began unravelling last Friday (May 24) when Pam Montour sent an email to Six Nations Bingo hall staff member questioning why a room at the bingo hall had not been cleared out in But when council learned a anticipation of the arrival of mini-styled casino was actu- the VLTs from Techlink En- ally underway, she said "we tertainment, the Nova Scotia rescinded the motion Mon- company she was under day (May 27). We didn't contract to. know what was going on. She later sent a second The chief's wife was ordering email asking the same and staff around. Machines were saying she had VLTs coming. coming in , we hadn't seen The emails were brought to any due diligence, no paper- Economic Development work, no study. We didn't ~ Manager Matt Jamieson's even know if a contract had attention, who told the staff been signed." person to instruct the chief's She said she understood wife to deal with him. "whatever they were doing there were machines coming into the bingo hall and the two private investors the chief got were going to be al- lowed to put machines in Jamieson was not aware of the gaming plan . He alerted Senior Opera- tional Manager Dayle Bomberry of the emails who brought the issue to band council's attention. Band Council was sur- prised to learn of the emails and a business card bearing the name of a Nova Scotia gaming company Techlink Pam Montour Entertainment and Pam Montour 's (the chief's wife) name appeared on the card. Chief Montour also at- tended an economic devel- opment conference in Las "I told the chief, with his wife in- volved, it would appear to the community as a kickback and therefore I cannot support it." Councillor Wray Maracle Vegas over the Victoria Day holiday May 20, where he and his wife met with Tech- lin!< Entertainment CEO Jon Xidos. Xidos said he had also met the elected chief in Nova Scotia in the spring, when he checked on an in- cinerator being built for Six Nations Councillor Miller said t he elected chief, and Jon Xidos toured the bingo hall in t he spring with a number of peo- ple, including his wife. "She (Pam Montour) handed out a business card from this company with her name on it. The chief said she was a consultant but if she was a consultant she would have handed out her own card not someone else's. " Miller said the economic Councillor Wray Maracle development officer, Matt Jamieson, was left out of the process. "Why wasn't our economic development staff involved in this. This just doesn't make sense," she said. She said council was just as confused. "They all said the chief was just suppose to look into it, not open a casino." She said it is unfortunate. Miller said the idea may have generated funds. "It might have been a good deal but who knows, he just went and did it, wouldn't give us any documents, an agreement, wouldn't even tell us who these private partners are or why we need t h e m She said council has no idea how a casino at Six Na- tions will affect gaming funds it receives from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corpo- ration through the Ontario First Nations Limited Part- nership (OFNLP). The Chiefs of Ontario signed a new agreement with the OLG to funnel I per- cent of all gaming funds to the OFNLP for distribution to all First Nations in On- tario. Councillor Miller said OFNLP chairman Steve Williams had been invited to the March meeting and rec- ommended band council hold discussions with On- tario before implementing a casino here. " I thought that was a good idea. I wanted to know if we opened one would we lose the gaming funds we get now. We get $8 million that we could lose." Elected Chief Montour said the gaming pilot "is a good thing." "We can't keep hoping In- dian Affairs is going to come to the table to meet our needs. This was a good proj- ect." He said council knew what was going on. Council had passed a motion in March, saw a presentation of the project, and instructed him to investigate. He said there was no contract. He said putting machines in the bingo hall was part of that investigation. "It was a pilot test we would run to see if there was any interest or money gener- ated." "If it was going to be a benefit to the community, then we would have sat down and looked at a con- tract. But this was a pilot." He said he believes there is a constitutional right for First Nations to get involved in gaming. He said several First Na- tions are already successfully involve din gaming. "In Saskatchewan they won six casinos and make millions. Membertou in New Brunswick has these ma- chines and have built a con- ference centre, mall, arena . The same in Alberta. So why shouldn't Six Nations con- trol its own gaming." He sa id the issue for band council wasn't about engag- ing in gaming. "It was about my wife." Techlink Entertainment hired Pam Montour as an aborigi- nal liaison to help them con- nect with First Nations. "She has worked as a tribal council executive in B.C., she is highly educated and they hired her for that," he said. But he said council's con- flict of interest policies came into play and stopped the project, but his wife still works for the company. "It's not like we are paying her.There was a time that if someone wanted to do the work, we let them do it. Now it's become frustrating trying to deal with people who want to stick in the same mode we know ain't working for us," he said. He said council knew after holding a hugely successful casino night at the bingo hall on New Year's Eve that gaming was a money gener- ator. He said the issue came down to minutes not being processed by staff and got- ten to council in a timely fashion to questions about his wife's invovlement. "Council asked where's the minutes. The SAO didn't have an answer." He said his assistant said she missed the time frame to get the min- utes out in a timely fashion. As a result, he said, "Every- one made assumptions about what was going on." He said the new VLTs go be- yond the currrent 55 to 85 gaming cohort and hit a younger population of po- tential gamers. "The group 45 and younger want more exciting, more changing games. Rev- enues from Windsor. Niagara Falls even Rama are going down. The study came out showing t he gaming field is changing. Younger audiences (Continued page 4)