The City of Burnaby is budgeting for as much as $11.5 million to roll into its coffers from the Grand Villa Casino in 2022.
That’s the amount that is listed in a report to the city’s financial management committee – far above the $3.25 million that was budgeted for 2021.
This is based on an expectation that the Grand Villa Casino will stay open for all of 2022, after it was only open for part of 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Burnaby gets 10% of local casino revenues, raking in $3.273 million in 2021 and more than $5 million in 2020 before COVID-19 shut it down.
So, how is that casino money being spent by the city?
According to the report, expenditures funded from the Gaming Reserve for 2021 totaled $39,259,977, of which $2,794,170 are operating expenditures and $36,465,807 are capital expenditures.
The biggest expenditure by far is about $32.5 million towards the construction of the new Laurel Street works yard project.
The new facility will include space for public works operations (road, water and drainage), central stores (warehousing for stock materials and parts), welding, paint and carpentry shops, a data centre, fleet storage and repairs, and offices (engineering and emergency operations centre). The Canadian Turner Construction Company is leading this $76 million project, with estimated completion in late 2022.
Other major expenditures from gaming cash include $1.1 million in improvements to the Norland works yard and $1 million to the Burnaby Hospital Foundation to help with its redevelopment campaign. The city is also spending $500,000 on a spectator area at the Burnaby Lake Pavilion.
