English River Chief Denies Report of Casino Plans

Monday, June 28, 2004 at 12:54

The chief of the English River First Nation says a report that the band is pursuing a casino development near Saskatoon is totally false.

The report ran in Friday’s edition of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.

The paper indicated that the band was hoping to convince the province, SIGA and the Saskatoon Tribal Council to move the proposed Whitecap reserve casino site to a site on English River land just south of the city.

However, English River chief Toby Aubichon insists the report is not true and says the band has never had discussions about building a casino.

Aubichon says the band is still pursuing a hotel and truck stop development on its parcel of land 4 kilometres south of Saskatoon.

He says the project should provide much-needed jobs and benefits to the band’s urban members living in Saskatoon.

The project has been in the works for the last year-and-a-half and would cost 10 million dollars.

However, Aubichon says nothing has been finalized, yet.