In Canada, a new poll has reportedly found that the majority of residents in the southern Ontario city of Peterborough do not want a new area casino due to be built by operator Great Canadian Gaming Corporation.

According to a report from The Peterborough Examiner newspaper, the survey commissioned by the Mississaugas Of Scugog Island First Nation and conducted by Ottawa-based Abacus Data found that 76% of Peterborough residents were against the casino while 74% believed that a full environmental assessment should be part of the planning process.

The newspaper reported that the survey had involved polling some 300 residents of Peterborough about new and expanded gaming facilities in Ontario and took place over the week beginning on October 24 with 90% of respondents revealing that they had lived in the city located 78 miles northeast on Toronto for at least a decade.

The Mississaugas Of Scugog Island First Nation had ran gaming tables at The Great Blue Heron Casino near Port Perry for more than 20 years before signing an agreement with the Ontario Lottery And Gaming Corporation recently that saw it turn over this enterprise. Having dealt with the state-run entity for many years, the tribe’s chief, Kelly LaRocca, told the newspaper that the poll, which also involved similar exercises in Pickering and Ajax, had simply been a way of accessing whether the Crown corporation was being true to its word of only implementing new or expanded casinos in willing communities.

“We commissioned the poll to determine if the [Ontario Lottery And Gaming Corporation] is living up to its own standards before considering these communities for new casinos,” LaRocca told The Peterborough Examiner.

The newspaper reported that the results of the poll had come as no surprise to Roy Brady, a member of the No Casino Peterborough lobby group, as city councillors had approached the Ontario Lottery And Gaming Corporation with the plan to relocate the nearby Shorelines Slots At Kawartha Downs to Peterborough three years ago despite “uproar” from the local community.

“We’re still bitter about that one,” Brady told The Peterborough Examiner.

Fellow No Casino Peterborough member Sheila Nabigon-Howlett told the newspaper that the results of the survey reflect that the majority of the community does not want a casino in the city of 78,600 and feel that the Shorelines Slots At Kawartha Downs facility should stay in Cavan Monaghan, which sits around twelve miles from Peterborogh.

“I think these figures back up our original contention,” Nabigon-Howlett told the newspaper. “That’s peoples’ opinion and that has not changed.”