Canada Needs Leadership to Reduce Gambling-related Harms

The Right Honourable Paul Martin, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON

Dear Prime Minister:

I refer you to my letter of December 15, 2004. We received no response to our query regarding the status of a request by Canada’s Gambling Watch Network and the Citizen Voice for Gambling Integrity Society for a Royal Commission into Gambling in Canada.

Current national news reports have been reinforcing the need for urgent action to prevent gambling-related deaths, injuries and other harms. Today, for example, Nova Scotia announced its intent to reduce the number of VLTs amidst accounts of suicides by people who easily became addicted to the machines.

A Canada West Foundation study on gambling in Canada released on June 21 found that provincial and territorial governments took in over $12.7 billion from gambling last year. As the regulators of their own extremely lucrative gambling operations, these governments find themselves in a glaring conflict of interest as they become more and more reliant on revenues from their gambling operations.

The study reiterates eight policy recommendations from its earlier three-year independent study of gambling in Canada that ended in 2001. The recommendations include adopting a public health approach to gambling, stopping expansion pending more research and data on impacts of gambling, involving the public in policy-making, working with First Nations — and a national review of gambling activity in Canada. These recommendations should have been taken seriously over four years ago.

Gambling-related crime, business losses, family distress, suicides and the growing burden on our health care system must be of concern to the federal government. This issue presents a prime opportunity for the federal government to take a leadership role. What does your government intend to do to stem the rising tide of gambling- related harms?

Sincerely,

Emile-J. Therien
President, Canada Safety Council

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