Kingsway Entertainment District inches closer to reality in Sudbury

The chips are falling into place for the partners behind the KingswayEntertainment District in Sudbury.

On Wednesday night, city council passed the final site design for the project, which includes a casino, hockey arena and hotel.

It's the culmination of work between developer Dario Zulich, Gateway Casinos and the city.

But it was the casino's involvement that had most councillors talking last night.

Gerry Montpellier told council the arrival of the casino would be a huge blow to the slots at Sudbury Downs.

"I hear about all these million and millions [of tourists] and everybody's joyful," Montpellier said. "But I can tell you about a place in Chelmsford. The tourists eat there. Sleep there. Buy gas. They do. They're not cheerful there. Because some of them will be bankrupt."

Coun. Lynne Reynolds cautioned the councillors about speaking against the casino at last night's meeting.

"I want to remind everyone that the location is not an issue for council to debate," Reynolds said. "It's an agreement between the province and Gateway who won the bid and who have chosen their preferred location."

"This needs to be made very, very clear. We are not debating the casino issue."

Chamber's recent controversy

Recently, two people who were once the face of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce quit the board over the group's stance on a new casino and arena.

Andre Dumais and Vicki Jacobs, both former chairs of the chamber, resigned as directors when they were told they couldn't speak publicly against plans to build the new entertainment complex.

"As much as I love the chamber and I love the people I work with, the position [of the chamber]is just too weak," Dumaistold CBC news. "This is a time when we need to step up and look at this in an empirical way, drop the emotion from it and say 'What is right for the community?'"