New leaders, same plan: Tsleil-Waututh still pursuing Hastings casino licence after band elections

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The Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s leadership has changed, but its bid to take over the lease of Hastings Racecourse and Casino moves forward.

Justin Sky George was voted in as Tsleil-Waututh Chief in band elections last month, beating out incumbent Jen Thomas. Three of the six councillors for this four-year term are newcomers as well. 

It was Thomas who led the way in the June 6 announcement that the Tsleil-Waututh had entered a non-binding memorandum of understanding to acquire the rights to the casino business licence and the related real estate properties at Hastings Racecourse from Great Canadian Entertainment. 

“We had our first council meeting this past week and this is still a top priority for us,” Dennis Thomas, who’s one of the three re-elected councillors, said Friday. “We’re still actively working alongside the Great Canadian group on a definitive agreement.

“The No. 1 thing within our nation is to come up with diversified economic opportunities. The gaming industry has been discussed for many, many years. When we found out about this opportunity, we were like ‘let’s go in, let’s try this.’

“We like that area. That area is underdeveloped, underused. There are potential opportunities to see how we could increase revenues in that location, knowing that entire area of the PNE is being revamped. We know it’s a great location. It’s in our territory. The PNE is there. If there are ways we could be innovative and creative, should this opportunity come to fruition, we’d like to see how it would operate there.”

A deal with Great Canadian could take several months to finalize, Thomas admitted. It would be subject to financing and approval by regulators. The land is owned by the City of Vancouver.

The operating agreement, which covers the casino building, the grandstand, the racetrack and infield, plus the horse barns and a small adjacent parking lot, expires next May.

“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, still a lot of due diligence that we need to work through before we get to an agreement,” Thomas said.

There have been questions about the future of Horse Racing at Hastings. Thomas says that assuming a deal goes through the Tsleil-Waututh would “work with the City of Vancouver to see what’s the best use of that business is.”

“But at the moment that’s too far down the road. Right now, it’s about the casino licence,” he added.

There’s also the matter of the Vancouver Whitecaps looking at the area for a new stadium. The Whitecaps announced in April that they were in discussions with the City of Vancouver about the possibilities of building a new home field at the PNE fairgrounds site. 

The team is for sale and the idea is that having their own venue — they currently lease out B.C. Place — would be more attractive to a potential new owner.

“When the opportunity comes to fruition, we’d be open to having dialogue on other potential interests like the Whitecaps,” Thomas said. “For us, it’s being economic players with different industries like the game industry. If conversations can happen after we do our due diligence, we’d be open to them.

“We’d like to work with the City of Vancouver. We have a great relationship with them as a nation to government. We’d definitely have great conversations about what would be the best use of that property.”

David Milburn is the president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of B.C., which represents the owners and trainers who run their horses at Hastings. He told Postmedia last month that the casino licence and racing licence are tied together. The provincial government allowed Hastings and Fraser Downs, B.C.’s other Horse Racing track, to add slot machines.

He reiterated those thoughts on Sunday via email.

“The entire rationale for allowing slot machine gambling at Hastings Park was to support and sustain live Horse Racing in British Columbia,” Milburn wrote. “This isn’t just tradition — it’s embedded in public policy, municipal zoning, and provincial agreements. The City of Vancouver’s bylaw explicitly ties the operation of slots at Hastings to the presence of live Horse Racing, and the original provincial authorizations were granted on that same basis. To continue slot machine gambling while abandoning Horse Racing would be a violation — not just of public trust, but of the legal and regulatory framework that justified their installation in the first place. This was never intended to be a stand-alone casino; it was meant to be a revenue stream that sustains an entire rural and urban industry. If racing goes, the legitimacy of those slots must be re-evaluated.”

With files from Patrick Johnston

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