AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF LEGAL WRANGLING TO BE GIVEN A PLACE

at the table on the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s board of directors, a First Nation group is insisting an appointment be made now. A ruling in April found that Ontario was in breach of its contractual obligations from a 2008 agreement, acting in bad faith, by not appointing a member of the Ontario First Nations Limited Partnership to the board. That agreement also saw the First Nations of Ontario get a 1.7 per cent share of gross revenues from gambling revenues in the province. Ontario, said the First Nations group, has refused them a seat on the board, rejecting a number of applicants saying they did not meet provincial requirements.

“I don’t understand why,” said Randy Sault, the First Nations group’s general manager, reads a report by the Canadian Press. “It’s quite offensive behavior that raises public policy questions about the ability of the government to break signed contracts.”

Finance Minister Charles Sousa said the government will now respect the arbitrator’s decision.