Internal government records show British Columbia Lotteries Corp. wanted to cut its funding for the province's integrated illegal gaming enforcement team (IIGET) two years before it was shutdown.
The province's gaming minister Rich Coleman has said the RCMP team, which was setup in 2003 to crackdown on illegal gambling, was disbanded because there was dissatisfaction with the "outcomes or the success of this particular operation."
That seems to be at odds with an earlier statement from an RCMP spokesperson, who cited "funding pressures and other operational and investigative priorities" as the reasons for that disbandment.
And now, Public Eye has exclusively obtained meeting minutes for the team's five-member consultative board that could shed light on what might have been one of those pressures.
According to those minutes, on Nov. 26, 2007, the board discussed an effectiveness report, written by public policy consultant Cathy Tait, which supported "IIGET continuing."
The lottery corporation's then president and chief executive officer Dana Hayden also told the board her agency "supports IIGET." But, according to Hayden, "funding the team," which was costing between $628,000 and $1.6 million annually, didn't "fit within BCLC's mandate."
As a result, the board, which included three government representatives, decided the team "should be funded directly by the province" - although money continued to flow from BC Lotteries until the team was shutdown.
But, asked whether that shutdown had to do with funding pressures, Coleman told Public Eye, "No, because if there had been something that said that this was being effective and we received a business plan and those sort of things, it would have been a total different discussion."
However, "none of that occurred," he continued. "And our concern was we were just putting good money after bad. Frankly, we weren't getting the results we wanted."
In an earlier interview, the minister also rejected former team commander Fred Pinnock's statement that it "seemed the way to remain in favour with government was simply to maintain a statistical, check-the-box-type, radar gun-level of enforcement and not meaningful targeting that would disrupt significant criminal activity."
And he said he "totally" disagreed with Pinnock's statement that there's a "ton of criminal activity" being conducted at the province's casinos which BC Lotteries security and the government's gaming inspectors don't appear to have had much impact on.
Pinnock last week said his team was shutdown because the RCMP was "under significant pressure to allocate resources elsewhere to respond to more high-profile crime trends."
Government in truffle again?
The provincial government has splashed out almost have-a-million dollars to host business leaders and foreign dignitaries at a tony private club in Vancouver during 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
A contract obtained via a freedom of information request states that price tag could increase to a maximum of $650,000.
But the government has already pre-paid $135,000 for meeting room rentals and $315,000 for food and beverages. That includes the cost of renting five suites to make lodging available to those VIPs at the Terminal City Club's boutique hotel.
The province, which is being allowed to supply its own wine, hasn't yet decided how to spend its food and beverage budget.
But among the selections it will be considering is a $57 four-course "refined" dinner that features options like: game consommé, truffle gnocchi; vanilla cured pork belly, crispy 150 mile house bacon, peach thyme compote; maple miso marinated sable fish, steamed new potatoes, picked vegetables; chocolate covered mousse bombe, gold adorned.
And, for an extra $15, the government could add chardonnay steam Caribbean lobster tail, chunked crab and truffle hollandaise or coriander-crusted Alaskan scallops to that dinner.
Asked about that contract, a government spokesperson explained it will allow the province to "maximize the economic and investment opportunities that come from hosting business leaders and dignitaries from around the world who are visiting Vancouver during the Games."
Sean Holman is editor of the online provincial political news journal Public Eye. He can be reached at [email protected].
