Brantford Casino Revenue: Where Has the Money Been Allocated?

A question in a Brantford Facebook group recently sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole: where has the City’s casino money actually gone? I started digging through council decisions and finance reports, and the answer touches a lot more of Brantford than I expected. From sports facilities and community grants to hospice care and heritage projects, here’s what I found about Brantford casino contributions.

My focus here is what Council earmarked the money for: the projects, services and community organizations named in the records. I have kept the dates attached to each allocation so you can see how those priorities changed over time.

TL;DR

• Casino contributions support named projects, recurring community commitments and transfers into City reserves.
• The City’s March 2026 report records $4,634,229 in receipts for calendar 2025, below its $5 million annual budget assumption.
• Civic Centre improvements and the new Sports and Entertainment Centre are separate funding items.
• The funding decisions cover everything from playgrounds and fire services to hospice care, arts and heritage.
• These are selected allocations across different years, with some larger commitments spread over several annual instalments.

Brantford casino revenue allocations at a glance

Here are selected examples of what the money was earmarked for. The dates and sources identify each allocation. Some totals include annual instalments also mentioned below, so the list should not be added together.

• Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre: $6.1 million for additional expansion costs in the October 2011 approval. This is the sum of three funding components, not lifetime casino funding for the centre.
• Civic Centre and Bulldogs: $4.25 million for HVAC improvements and $3 million for the leasehold improvement allowance in the 2023 commitment schedule.
• Y/Laurier Athletic Complex: up to $5.21 million approved in June 2014, subject to a grant agreement. The later $521,000 annual instalments through 2025 are parts of that award, not extra funding to add on top.
• Kiwanis Field: $1.8 million in the final 2015 casino commitment schedule.
• Bison’s Alumni Field: up to $3 million from casino funds in 2016. The 2016 year-end casino report separately lists $346,300 for field extras.
• Fire Station 2: the September 2019 funding table, page 7 lists $2.2 million in approved funding from the Casino Legacy Fund. That is the casino-funded portion of the station’s budget.
• Playground replacements: the April 2019 report, page 7 identifies $1,195,000 in casino-reserve funding within the $2 million programme budget for 2016-2019. The separate 2020 allocation is outside this figure.
• Waterfront Master Plan: $350,000 annually for five years, approved in March 2010 for acquiring, restoring and protecting waterfront lands.
• Stedman Community Hospice: at least $3.2 million in identified historical funding, allocations and commitments through 2025. This combines the earlier funding history, 2019 one-time award and four annual commitments from the five-year approval. The breakdown and year-specific schedules are below.
• Physician recruitment: $145,000 in the 2025 commitment schedule. The later primary-care pilot is separate, with approved funding of $230,000 in 2026 and $220,000 in 2027.
• City Grants: $700,000 scheduled in each of 2025 and 2026. These are annual commitments, separate from the grant-year awards breakdown discussed below.
• Woodland Cultural Centre: a $220,000 Save the Evidence commitment in 2015, plus a distinct $1 million capital-campaign approval in 2025, spread over four $250,000 instalments through 2028. Roof and windows awards are detailed separately below.
• Six Nations Polytechnic: $425,000 in the final 2015 casino commitment schedule.
• Public Art Reserve: a $35,000 transfer in the 2025 schedule, rising to $70,000 in the 2026 schedule.
• Boundary compensation: $1,163,350 scheduled in each of 2026 and 2027.
• New Sports and Entertainment Centre: $635,000 scheduled in each of 2026 and 2027, separate from the Civic Centre work.
• Canadian Military Heritage Museum: $120,000 scheduled for expansion in 2026. Its older accessible-washroom grant is covered separately below.
• Other reserve transfers for 2026: $1 million to capital, $500,000 to Council priorities and $250,000 to hospital redevelopment in the June schedule, pages 3-4.
• Early approved allocations: $32,292,919 for 2000-2007 in the January 2008 plan. This is an overlapping historical snapshot, not extra money to add to the named examples.

How Brantford casino revenue is allocated

The June 17, 2026 City report separates casino contributions into five categories under Finance Policy 010. Council updated the policy in September 2023.

The percentages set out how incoming casino revenue is divided among the City’s funding priorities. Here are examples of the allocations identified under each heading.

Legacy projects: 40%

The Casino Legacy Reserve, sometimes called the Casino Legacy Fund, is a City fund holding casino money for Council-approved legacy projects and commitments. Under the current policy, the Legacy component receives 40% of receipts. A reserve lets the City set money aside for these commitments and future projects.

The September 2023 policy directs funding requests through Finance Committee before Council. It identifies lasting projects across areas such as recreation, community health, culture and education. It also says the reserve is not for the City’s operating-budget expenditures.

A useful example is Woodland Cultural Centre. The 2025 capital-campaign report identifies the Casino Legacy Reserve as the source for a $1 million contribution, scheduled as $250,000 annually from 2025 through 2028. The June 2026 commitment schedule lists $250,000 in both 2026 and 2027.

Woodland’s capital-campaign contribution comes from this fund.

Community group funding: 25%

This category supports funding through the Community Groups Reserve. The City Grants annual report identifies that reserve as the source of the approved $700,000 City Grants allocation for each program year through June 2027.

The June 2026 casino report also lists $700,000 for City Grants in each calendar-year column. The program’s grant year and the City’s financial year are different periods, so I would not add those descriptions together.

Primary-care access is another confirmed example. Council’s November 2025 approval directs $230,000 in 2026 and $220,000 in 2027 from the Community Groups Reserve to the pilot program.

An earlier hospice decision also names this reserve. On August 27, 2019, Council approved a one-time $200,000 grant for Stedman Community Hospice operations from the Community Groups Reserve. The adopted wording matters: this was one-time support, not the recurring $200,000 funding considered in the staff report. The separate $80,000 Enhanced Living Model grant was for long-term care, not the hospice.

In a later decision, Council approved $100,000 annually for five years on May 24, 2022, again from the Community Groups Reserve. The December 2022 forecast appendix lists separate $100,000 commitments for 2022 and 2023, while the 2023 policy review, page 10 identifies the annual grant as continuing until 2026. Together, these identify the five-year commitment period as 2022-2026.

For a closer look at the grant recipients, the City’s 2024/2025 review reports 111 awards using $630,000 in available funding: $164,200 for capital and start-up projects, $89,800 for events and $376,000 for operations. Recipients include food programs, youth groups, recreation clubs and arts organizations.

The $630,000 grant-year award total is part of the funding picture, not another amount to add to the annual allocation.

The June 2023 policy review, page 10 also identifies these annual commitments under Community Group Funding:

• Physician recruitment: $110,000.
• Annual arts grants: $158,470, including museum funding agreements and annual operating agreements through the Community Cultural Investment Program.
• Christmas Baskets: $5,000.
• Other annual grants: $213,800, covering student nutrition, emergency food services, the Seniors Resource Centre, Victim Services of Brant, the Brantford Food Bank and DIVA.

These are the annual amounts listed in the 2023 review.

Capital contribution: 20%

The 2025 year-end schedule, page 3 lists a $926,846 transfer to the Capital Reserve for 2025. The June 2026 forecast schedules $1 million in 2026 and another $1 million in 2027.

This allocation sets aside casino money for the City’s capital priorities.

Older recreation projects also received casino funding, but those approvals should not automatically be counted under today’s 20% capital allocation.

Council priorities: 10%

The 2025 year-end schedule, page 3 lists a $463,423 transfer to the Council Priorities Reserve for 2025. The June 2026 forecast, page 4 schedules $500,000 in each of 2026 and 2027.

This reserve provides funding for priorities approved by Council.

Cultural and built heritage: 5%

The June 2026 schedule, page 4 specifically labels $120,000 for the Canadian Military Heritage Museum expansion as a Cultural and Built Heritage grant. It appears in the 2026 column, with no amount shown for 2027.

The museum expansion is one of the heritage projects earmarked for support. Woodland’s separate capital-campaign contribution is covered under Legacy above.

Earlier heritage-program allocations supported these projects:

• Woodland rear-roof work: the 2018 Cultural Plan annual report, PDF page 8 records $100,000 approved for the Save the Evidence Phase Two Rear Roof Project.
• Woodland windows and public access: Council’s August 2019 decision, PDF page 39 awarded up to $100,000, less ineligible HST, from the Cultural and Built Heritage Reserve for Save the Evidence Phase 3: Public Access and Safety. The report on 2020, page 15 describes the windows project as $100,000 over two years. A later report, page 16 repeats it while discussing a deferred $50,000 balance. That is the same award appearing again, not another $100,000 contribution.
• Museum accessible washroom: the same August 2019 decision, PDF page 39 awarded up to $83,000, less ineligible HST, from the Cultural and Built Heritage Reserve for the museum’s accessible-washroom project.

These earlier heritage-program examples predate the September 2023 policy revision. They are also separate from Woodland’s later capital campaign and the museum’s 2026 expansion commitment.

Other commitments in the combined schedule

The June report, pages 3-4 combines commitments across several casino-funded reserves. Alongside the items above, it lists these 2026 amounts:

• Boundary compensation: $1,163,350.
• Sports and Entertainment Centre funding: $635,000.
• St. Joseph’s Lifecare hospice grant: $100,000.
• Transfer to the Hospital Redevelopment Reserve: $250,000.
• Transfer to the Public Art Reserve: $70,000.

These commitments add hospital redevelopment, public art and other municipal obligations to the list of purposes earmarked for casino funding.

Historical Brantford casino revenue allocations

The current percentages should not be applied backwards to every casino-funded project. The February 2019 report explains that all casino revenue went into the Casino Legacy Reserve before 2016. Council adopted a percentage-based policy in 2015, and changed it again in 2023.

The January 2008 Strategic Financial Plan, PDF pages 31-32 labels $32,292,919 as total approved allocations for 2000-2007. Entries include $6,227,978 for downtown revitalization, $4.1 million for John Noble Home capital, $1.44 million for Brantford General Hospital and $720,000 for St. Joseph Hospice.

That is the approved-allocation snapshot for those years. The plan’s anticipated 2008 and 2009 allocations are in separate columns and are not part of that historical total.

Woodland’s earlier restoration funding is separate from its later capital campaign. The February 2016 finance agenda, PDF page 33 lists a $220,000 Save the Evidence commitment in its final 2015 casino-revenue schedule. That commitment predates the percentage policy taking effect in 2016.

The hospice history also goes further back than the recent annual schedules:

• The Treasurer’s August 2019 retrospective, page 2 reports $240,000 in each year from 2005 through 2009 and 2011 through 2015. It also records a one-time $200,000 grant approved in 2018 and identifies all that earlier funding as casino-funded.
• The adopted August 2019 Council decision, pages 23-24 adds a distinct one-time $200,000 hospice grant from the Community Groups Reserve.

Those ten annual amounts and two one-time grants total $2.8 million in identified historical funding and approvals. Adding the four distinct $100,000 annual commitments for 2022-2025 brings the identified subtotal through 2025 to at least $3.2 million.

The 2022 forecast appendix, 2023-2024 commitment schedule and 2025 year-end schedule identify those separate annual amounts. The 2022 entry comes from that year’s forecast of approved commitments. The fifth $100,000 commitment, for 2026, is outside this through-2025 subtotal.

The early $720,000 allocation snapshot is already included and must not be added again. Nor does the subtotal count the proposed recurring $200,000 grants in the 2019 staff forecast. The subtotal covers the identified allocations and commitments through 2025.

The Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre is another clear example. The 2012 finance agenda, PDF page 36 reproduces Council’s October 24, 2011 approval for additional expansion costs: $2.5 million from a prior-year reserve balance, $1.75 million from 2011 and $1.85 million from 2012.

Together, those components total $6.1 million. They are parts of one approval, not amounts to add again on top of $6.1 million.

The 2023 commitment schedule lists $4.25 million for Civic Centre HVAC improvements, $3 million for the Bulldogs’ leasehold improvement allowance, $97,103 for OHL relocation professional services and $200,000 for new-facility professional services. These allocations supported the Civic Centre work, the Bulldogs’ move and planning for the new facility.

The new Sports and Entertainment Centre has a separate December 2025 financing model. It includes $2.54 million in casino fund reallocation during development, followed by $635,000 annually in the years shown. The June 2026 schedule lists $635,000 in each of 2026 and 2027.

That is separate from the Civic Centre work above. My Brantford SEC financing article explains the broader borrowing and reserve assumptions.

Casino contributions and upcoming allocations

The March 2026 year-end report records $4,634,229 in actual 2025 receipts. The later June 17, 2026 report, pages 3-4 gives this forward schedule:

The June forecast sets out the commitments planned for 2026 and 2027, including transfers into the City’s reserves. Existing reserve balances can support allocations that exceed one year’s casino contributions.

OLG’s reporting year needs separate attention. April’s payment announcement reports $4,718,169 for April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 and cumulative contributions of $110,874,047 after that period.

Rounded, that is $110.9 million. It belongs to that reporting cutoff, not November 2026. It is the total of contributions received by that reporting cutoff. January-March is OLG’s fourth fiscal quarter and the City’s first calendar quarter, so both descriptions can refer to the same cheque.

Which casino-funded project would you like explained?

Brantford casino revenue has been assigned to much more than one building or one grant program. The records show recurring community support, recreation commitments, heritage funding and money directed into municipal reserves.

You can agree or disagree with each decision. Knowing what Council earmarked the money for gives us a useful starting point for that discussion.

Have a question about a particular allocation or how a local project relates to your neighbourhood? Get in touch with me and tell me which decision you would like examined more closely.

All amounts are Canadian dollars. This article covers selected allocations and commitments across different periods. Forecasts are dated, and overlapping amounts should not be added together.

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