Richmond Hill’s mayor says the city won’t reconsider a decision to strip the bingo permit from a charity supporting York Region residents with multiple sclerosis.
Twice-monthly bingo sessions raised nearly $120,000 for My MS Family last year. They were the largest funding source for the charity, whose president, Peter Busciglio, has described Richmond Hill’s actions as “vindictive toward us.”
Busciglio on April 29, asked Mayor David West to personally intervene in re-instating My MS Family’s Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation permit for Bingo World Richmond Hill, adding the volunteer group would otherwise cancel its annual flag-raising ceremony at the city’s offices.
Relations between the city and My MS Family, which has around 500 members across the Greater Toronto Area, grew tense in February when staff at Richmond Hill’s OLG permit department told the charity it missed a renewal deadline by failing to submit paperwork, something My MS Family disputes.
Things worsened when city employees told the charity, which had donated bingo money to hospitals where MS patients are treated, it should return $80,000 given to Toronto’s West Park Healthcare Centre.
Members of My MS Family, whose long-term goal is to have West Park, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Whitby’s Abilities Centre establish a satellite rehabilitation centre for MS and other neurological diseases in York, say they see no reason why Richmond Hill would consider its donations a breach of OLG rules.
“How can it be illegal to donate money to hospitals?” Busciglio asked Wednesday after group members and Vaughan politicians raised the MS Canada flag.
On May 1, West responded to Busciglio by saying though he is a “firm believer that we must do everything we can to support grassroots charities that help empower community members,” the city and OLG found portions of the money My MS Family raised through its permit “were used to make ineligible expenses” that didn’t comply with provincial regulations.
“At this time, it is up to the My MS Family to make the appropriate changes to become eligible again,” West wrote.
But even if it can satisfy the city, My MS Family would not be able to resume bingo there until 2027. While the city has said its staff only follow OLG guidelines, OLG itself has declined to comment.
“The eligibility for the charities belongs to the municipalities,” said Tony Bitoni, a spokesperson. “It would be best to talk to Richmond Hill.”
Ian Lubeck, My MS Family’s treasurer, contacted the city’s permit staff by phone in February, trying to resolve their objections.
“I gave them absolutely everything they had asked for,” Lubeck said.
“Their rules we have followed to a T — and that’s the sad part.”
The city maintained the group’s gifts to hospitals breach OLG rules, stating in an April 26 email My MS Family’s donations to West Park and the Abilities Centre “are not approved donations.”
Lubeck, however, said he believes OLG guidelines allow such donations and OLG itself made a recent donation to West Park.
West Park unveiled a new family activity room last fall using its My MS Family donation.
But while stating the foundation “is very grateful for the generous support we’ve received” from the MS charity, spokesperson Kerry Kincaid said in an email last month, “the relationship between My MS Family and the City of Richmond Hill is a matter for those two organizations.
My MS Family, a volunteer-run charity supporting people with Multiple Sclerosis, has lost the permit to hold sessions at Bingo World Richmond Hill from which it raised $120,000 last year.
The charity also raises funds to directly support its members, covering part of the costs for electric wheelchairs, walkers and such things as housekeeping services and incontinence products.
An annual car show, a gala, private donations and an MS Walk all help the group raise additional funds, but not as much as bingo in Richmond Hill.
The group successfully applied to Newmarket for an OLG permit for that town’s Bingo World, but Lubeck estimated sessions there — once every five weeks starting in July — will yield only $25,000 this year.
Source: York Region