Durham casinos 'will be able to open up supersafe'
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Durham’s two existing casinos will resume offering round-the-clock gaming opportunities on July 16, just days ahead of the grand opening of a third casino in Pickering.
The Great Blue Heron Casino on Scugog Island and Casino Ajax are both slated to reopen at 10 a.m. on July 16 as Ontario progresses to Step 3 of its post-pandemic plan. Both gaming houses have been shuttered since November 2020 when riding COVID-19 cases prompted their closure.
Under the province’s guidelines for the third step, casinos will open with a 50 per cent capacity limit to reflect physical-distancing requirements. The websites for both the Scugog and Ajax casinos say that guests will not need to book reservations to play.
According to Unifor 1090 President Corey Dalton, who represents employees at the Durham casinos, table games at the Great Blue Heron will be offered daily from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. while patrons try their luck on slot machines 24 hours a day.
As well, the Scugog Island gambling den will offer limited food and beverage service but there will be no sit-down restaurants open in the initial phase of the reopening.
At Casino Ajax, the slot machines will also be open 24 hours a day and there will also be limited food and beverage options, said Dalton.
And, according to Dalton, the target date for the long-awaited opening of the Pickering Casino Resort will take place on July 26. It’s expected that both the table games and slot machines at that new casino will be offered 24-hours a day, with food and beverage service on the floor as well as one restaurant open.
Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which operates the three Durham casinos among others across the province, noted in a release that it is planning to open the casino at Pickering Casino Resort “in the near future, with the remainder of the resort opening at a later date in 2022.”
In the past few months, continued Dalton, union officials have met with every Durham MPP as well as Ontario’s minister of labour and minister of finance about reopening the casinos.
“Casinos can and will reopen safely. Casinos are the most regulated industry in Ontario — even more than the financial sector — and we’re used to following rules and our members are used to following rules and certainly we’re really happy obviously to get our members back to work,” said Dalton.
During the initial stages of the reopening, it’s anticipated that just under 50 per cent of the Great Blue Heron employees will return to work, said the union president. That number is expected to increase as more amenities, food and beverage options and games are added, he said.
All of the Ajax and Pickering union members will be recalled for the July 16 openings, added Dalton.
Last year, prior to the casino closures, Unifor represented 620 members at the Great Blue Heron Casino and another 230 at Casino Ajax. It’s anticipated there will be more than 1,500 unionized employees at the Pickering casino.
Maintenance and housekeeping employees have already returned to work in an effort to clean and prepare for the reopenings while others, such as dealers, cashiers and servers, are being “reorientated” before they head back to the gaming houses, said Dalton.
He also added that all employees will receive updated COVID-19 training for working with the public.
“Certainly it’s not as simple as going back to work and turning the lights on,” said Dalton. “There’s a lot of training going on behind the scenes and a lot of refamiliarization, with a huge focus on COVID-19, obviously, to ensure the safety of the employees and the safety of the guests is a No. 1 priority.”
Added Dalton: “We will be able to open up supersafe, I have full confidence there won’t be any issues with safety.”
