Jeff Burgar

It might be one of those “what they don’t know won’t hurt them” things. Or, to be optimistic, maybe its something our Alberta provincial government is holding back for when it needs to reverse a bad news cycle. You know, to get on top of things by talking about ‘feel good’ stuff for us wee citizens.

Whatever it is, it shouldn’t be allowed to go away. There’s always the danger it might, so we are thankful to the Camrose Casino for again raising the issue.

It’s all about the money. To be more precise, the lack of it in rural Alberta. We’re being hosed. Big time. Edmonton and Calgary charities are humongous winners in the money spent across the province in all of our Alberta casinos.

This is a well-known fact to those people who pay attention to such things. Such as your local government councils. One of their organizations, Alberta Municipalities, has lobbied provincial governments over the years. They want a fairer shake on how the money is divided across all provincial charities.

To put numbers on the story, if you are a Calgary charity to “get casino nights”, you are the big winner in the casino game. Your group rakes in, on average, $47,500, per year from casinos. Edmonton charities do just slightly worse. They average $41,500 per year.

Compare that to say, northern Alberta charities that get casino nights in Grande Prairie. They average $17,300 per year. Even that amount, less than half what is earned in Edmonton, is way more than say, Red Deer ($10,300 per year.) Or Medicine Hat ($11,500), St. Albert ($7,900) or, get this, Camrose charities at the bottom of the pile ($6,100 per year.)

To add insult to injury, Fort McMurray charities ($25,900 average earnings per year) only have to wait 16 months on average to get a casino. Grande Prairie is 28 months. Calgary is 20 months, Edmonton is 23 months. But Camrose charities wait 41 months and St. Albert 32 months.

Why Camrose charities, and by extension all of rural Alberta, keep getting the shaft on this is unknown. There are stronger words, but we will keep those for private meetings.

But there’s more to this story about provincial politicians playing footsie with Alberta Gaming and Liquor Control (AGLC) the body that looks after casinos and charities.

Besides charity workers having to often drive for hours and stay overnights compared to city folks, there’s more. Quite a few what we think are worthwhile charities in small and big centres around Alberta aren’t even allowed to get casino licenses.

After appealing being turned down for a casino a few years ago, the High Prairie Community Beautification Association lost that appeal. The reason? “Garden clubs are not considered a legitimate charity.”

Nice! Some flakey-wakeys, supported of course by your government in power and your own MLA, decided anybody who donates time and resources making their communities more attractive is a hoax. But exactly how worthy are some clubs with licenses?

Being in rural Alberta really does make for second-class charities, and citizens. It is long overdue for changes here.