On Oct. 24, city council candidates at a forum held in the Letkemann Theatre unanimously declared that they would like to see Thompson get a greater share of video lottery terminal (VLT) revenues from the provincial government.
The next night, the council of the day learned that Thompson - along with every other municipality in the province - will actually be seeing less VLT money than they had expected for 2010, a trend that could continue through future years.
"For the first time in several years, actual VLT revenues are significantly lower than projected and grants to municipalities must be adjusted accordingly," said Ron Lemieux, minister of local government, in a letter to all mayors and reeves in Manitoba. "In both 2009 and 2010, municipalities have received more funding through the Rural Community Development (VLT) grant than was available to be shared. As a result, the 2010 VLT grant payments must be reduced to allow for the recovery of the 2009 overpayment of approximately 16 per cent and for lower than anticipated revenues in 2010."
"The revenues may be down province-wide, but at the Burntwood Hotel recently we saw new VLTs get installed," argued Coun. Judy Kolada. Kolada explained that she did a count of the machines at the newly-renovated Burntwood, and that there were 34 - four more than there had been previously.
A relentless crusader against the VLT revenue flow in the past, Kolada told council that she wouldn't repeat her opinions that night. "It doesn't take a Rhodes scholar to determine that there are millions going out [of Thompson] and not a fair share coming in," she had said in July, the last time council discussed the matter. Kolada has estimated that up to $50 million may be leaving Thompson in VLT revenue.
At that time, the city was under the impression that they would receive their VLT revenue in the form of a $5,000 base payment, in addition to a payment of $18.49 per capita, based on figures from the 2006 census. For Thompson, this meant a total of $253,617 - down from $277,284 in 2009 and $273,518 in 2008.
Mayor Tim Johnston stated that he had brought up the issue with Premier Greg Selinger, as well as the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM), which has asked the province for data on how much money leaves each community through VLTs and how much it receives in return. That information has not been received, leading Johnston to say that "I think there's good reason why they don't want to share that information."
The province has said in the past that the reason behind the per capita funding is that not all communities have VLT machines, therefore people sometimes travel to other municipalities to use the VLTs. Even municipalities which have voted to ban the machines, such as Steinbach, still receive revenue from the provincial VLT pot.
"If VLT revenue is down, I see that as a positive thing," said outgoing Coun. Oswald Sawh, noting that some people become addicted to the machines and can lose a lot of money that way.
