ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Helping the Atlantic Lottery Corp. with a promotion is not a winning idea for some St. John’s councillors.
Council will rent 100 downtown parking spaces to Atlantic Lottery on Tuesday, May 14 so the corporation can give free parking to motorists as a promotion for Lotto Max draws on Tuesdays.
The decision to do that, however, was not unanimous.
Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’Leary and councillors Maggie Burton and Ian Froude dissented.
“It’s concerning that we would want to promote the betterment of the public image of Atlantic Lottery Corporation by allowing them to be sort of giving out free parking all day in downtown St. John’s,” said Burton.
She pointed to the addictive nature of gambling and the fact that this province spends more per capita on scratch tickets, VLTs and break-opens than the other Atlantic provinces.
Coun. Ian Froude also said he didn’t want to be a part of enabling gambling activity.
“That is not something I feel comfortable with supporting,” he said.
Coun. Debbie Hanlon, transportation lead with the city, said it’s supposed to be a feel-good promotion.
“It’s a business that gives great money back to our province. Without a doubt, gambling is an issue for some people, but also people relax with it.”
Hanlon said there are plenty of other corporations that advertise unhealthy things, such as soda, junk food and alcohol.
“Do we have the moral right to come in and say, ‘Hey, you can’t be advertising, you can’t be doing promotions with the city? We do those all the time. And we can limit if we’re going to put ads for this or for that, but at the end of the day, these are businesses that operate within the laws and are good corporate businesses that give back to the city.”
Hanlon said some of the meters that will be bagged by the Atlantic Lottery Corp. are the infamous headless ones, so it will mean some money in the city’s pocket.
Atlantic Lottery is paying $1,500 altogether for the 100 parking spaces, which will be distributed throughout the downtown.
According to the decision note in council’s agenda, similar promotional events will be held in other cities in Atlantic Canada, and the meter covers will be supplied by the corporation.
O’Leary said she voted against the idea mainly because she was concerned about turnover of parking spaces, which are in demand in the downtown core.
Hanlon said the meter covers will have a time limit so a motorist can’t monopolize the space all day, but the time limit has not yet been decided. She suggested two hours.
However, the decision note states the meter covers will be used in other municipalities, so the corporation “would not be able to adhere to this request” of a time limit.
Hanlon said she believes this is the first time meter covers have been used as a promotion.
“I think people will be pleased. It will make a good feel when they go there and realize they haven’t got to pay for their parking for two hours, or this period of time, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
“People who are addicted to gambling is a different – I don’t think this is the same – I don’t think it is in the same breadth as us saying, ‘Hey, we’ll give you a promotion.’”
Burton, however, said the city could help mitigate the effects of gambling on society by not permitting such marketing campaigns.
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
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