Gamblor’s World

Band presses on despite usual counter-arguments

Shawn Ohler, The Edmonton Journal

Published: Monday, December 18, 2006

ALEXIS WHITECOURT RESERVE — Framed by a graceful stand of towering poplars, Chief Cameron Alexis surveys the serene 30-acre clearing where his band is building a $63.5-million casino, hotel and truck stop.

Alexis has heard the arguments against the project: It will increase crime and problem gambling; finding people to build and staff it will be difficult in Alberta’s tight labour market; its unlikely location on the Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation’s reserve six kilometres west of Whitecourt makes it an economic gamble.

But Alexis boils down the issue with a no-nonsense approach.

This project is about survival,” Alexis said. “It is about the survival of my people.”

The chief hopes the Eagle River Casino and Travel Plaza, which is to open in January 2008 at the junction of highways 43 and 32, will spur Alexis Sioux to move to the Whitecourt reserve, a heavily treed tract that is now uninhabited. Revenues from the casino’s dozen table games and 200 slot machines, full-service truck stop and 106-room Marriott Fairfield hotel could also reverse the fortunes of the 900 Alexis band members who live an hour southeast on the First Nation’s impoverished main reserve on Lac Ste. Anne’s northern shore.

As it is, the chief says, economic prospects on the Alexis reserve are “limited to nil,” and unemployment estimates range from 70 to 95 per cent. The reserve needs at least 150 more houses, and the shortage of work and shelter provoke rampant drug and alcohol abuse.

Among Chief Alexis’s childhood sports buddies is Ron Morin, the Enoch Cree chief who cited similar hardships as he shepherded the planning and construction of the new $178-million River Cree Resort and Casino on Edmonton’s western edge. Like Morin, Alexis sees promise and practicality in Alberta’s growing gambling and hospitality industries.

“Here we are with Alberta booming, and it’s beyond me to think First Nations have the high unemployment we do,” Alexis said.

“This is our best chance to share in this province’s prosperity.”

Like the Enoch Cree, the Alexis Sioux joined forces with Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming to build their casino complex. Paragon calls the Alexis development an “interceptor” project whose clientele will be dominated by long-haul truckers motoring down the Highway 43 portion of the so-called “Canamex” transportation corridor.

Paragon has high hopes for Whitecourt, a 10,000-strong boom town fuelled by forestry and oil and gas drilling.

“We look at Whitecourt, halfway between Edmonton and Grande Prairie, as the Red Deer of 20 to 25 years ago,” said Paragon’s Ryan McQuilter, Eagle River’s project development manager.

“There is so much potential there.”

But Whitecourt is in the midst of its own construction boom — the town issued $69 million in development permits in 2006, up from $24 million in 2005 — and its unemployment rate is virtually nil.

Whitecourt’s deputy mayor Nieta World admits she enjoys placing the odd bet, and is thrilled by Eagle River’s potential to draw tourists to her town. But she ponders in the same breath a uniquely Albertan dilemma: Where will Paragon and Alexis find enough warm bodies to build Eagle River and staff it?

“Most towns would see it as a great benefit to open a business which would employ approximately 200 people,” World said.

“However, our unemployment rate is at zero per cent — possibly even negative — and I do not know where they will find the people to work the casino. Many businesses in town are having a hard time keeping workers.”

Pastor Dallas Bidell of Whitecourt’s Family Worship Centre said his Pentecostal flock is more concerned with the casino’s social implications than the economic ones.

Generally, there’s a sense of dread among my congregation,” Bidell said. “This kind of thing has happened in other communities where I’ve served — Vernon and Langley — and the crime rate almost invariably goes up and you almost invariably end up with more poverty. … Gambling is a very insidious addiction and it’s fuelled by availability and proximity.”

Bidell takes pains to point out that he doesn’t “begrudge” Alexis First Nation any future success.

He said he understands the reserve’s plight and wants to see its people thrive and succeed.

“I can certainly appreciate they want to enhance their own lives, but I’m not in favour of them doing it at the expense of others — others who’ll gamble away money they will most certainly miss. We’re shifting the burden, perhaps, by taking away from one group to give to another.”

Chief Alexis winks that church leaders who dislike gambling should “take a look at the bingos they support.”

He notes his band will pay for extra RCMP and firefighters once the project is built.

“As a former police officer, I can tell you, crime is already here,” said Alexis, whose posts included Mayerthorpe and Edmonton.

He shares World’s concern about the labour shortage, but said temporary camps of willing Alexis Sioux workers should put a sizable dent in Eagle River’s construction and operation requirements.

Whether there are enough dice-throwing, Hold ‘Em-playing truckers to buoy the only casino between Grande Prairie and Edmonton remains to be seen.

But one thing is certain: The Alexis First Nation hasn’t had this much cause for optimism in decades.

The chief already has plans for more housing, for programs to counter crack, methamphetamine and gangs, and for further commercial development on the Whitecourt reserve.

Alexis Land Management Corporation president Lyndon Aginas, whose first fastball coach was Chief Alexis, said Eagle River has given his people hope and a cause to rally behind. On a reserve-wide referendum, it garnered 92-per-cent support.

“When I think about this opportunity,” Aginas said, “I feel like an Albertan for the first time in my life.”

sohler@thejournal.canwest.com

CASINO FACTS

- The $63.5-million Eagle River Casino and Travel Plaza near Whitecourt will be financed by private lenders in Canada and the U.S. There is no government money in the project, and partner Paragon Gaming says taxpayers will not be on the hook if the project fails.

The casino’s slot machine revenues will be split according to a formula unique to Alberta’s First Nations casinos: 15 per cent to Paragon Gaming, 15 per cent to an Alexis First Nation charity, 30 per cent to the Alberta Lottery Fund, 30 per cent to Alexis First Nation general revenues and 10 per cent to Alberta First Nations that don’t have casinos.

- Once the project’s hotel and truck stop turn a profit, the Alexis First Nation will keep a majority of the profit. Paragon will get the rest. The entire project is expected to provide annual revenue of about $17 million to the band.
- The projected annual economic impact of the project is about $34 million.

© The Edmonton Journal 2006