2 former chairs quit Sudbury Chamber of Commerce over casino, arena position

Two people who were once the face of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce quit the board this week over the group's stance on a new casino and arena.

Andre Dumais and Vicki Jacobs, both former chairs of the chamber, resigned as directors when they were told they couldn't speak publicly against plans to build a new entertainment complex, including a $100 million city-owned arena, on the Kingsway.

"I just can't bite my tongue on these issues," says Dumais, who has been a chamber director for most of the past decade.

"As much as I love the chamber and I love the people I work with, the position is just too weak and this is a time when we need to step up and look at this in an empirical way, drop the emotion from it and say 'What is right for the community?'"

Dumais says he feels the new expanded casino to replace the 18-year-old slots at Sudbury Downs will suck money out of the local economy and while he doesn't necessarily think downtown is the best location for an event centre, he feels it is much better than the Kingsway site selected by city council in June.

"In my opinion probably one of the worst decisions that's been made in the community for a long time," he says.

The chamber of commerce has long been supportive of a new casino in Sudbury and while it did endorse a downtown location during the arena debate this spring, it has since thrown its support behind the Kingsway entertainment district scheme pitched by Sudbury Wolves owner Dario Zulich.

Jacobs, a small business owner in downtown Sudbury who's been actively involved in the chamber since 1994, also felt she had to resign based on her profound disagreement with the group's official position on the casino and arena.

"I don't see how that's good for business. It's good for individual businesses, but it's not good for the rest of us," she says.

"I think that these two are very, very detrimental for our city in the long term."

Both Dumais and Jacobs say they hope to convince Sudbury city council to overturn its past decisions on the arena and casino. 

Michael Macnamara, the current chair of the chamber of commerce, said he was "disappointed" at the resignations.

He said the chamber's support for a new expanded casino is based on research by a special task force in 2012 and 2013, as well as a survey of members.

Macnamara says while the chamber initially backed a downtown site for a new event centre, it felt the most important thing was to get a new arena built and applauds council for making a decision to move forward with the Kingsway site.