Beaver Lake has bingo beef about waiting list

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Members of the Beaver Lake Recreation Association believe they aren't being treated fairly by the Lac La Biche and Area Bingo Association.

Beaver Lake band administrator Joyce Steinhauer said the First Nation's members make up 20 per cent of the nightly clientele at the nearby Lac La Biche bingo hall, yet the Beaver Lake Recreation Association has never been allowed to work a bingo.

Steinhauer said the band has made a number of applications to become a member, but has been turned down for a variety of reasons. They just want their fair share, Steinhauer said.

"We're not screaming discrimination or anything like that. We just want a night of bingo for ourselves," Steinhauer said.

Since the bingo association began in the early 1990s, a number of non-profit groups, including the local friendship centre, a youth swimming team, the Kinsmen and Elks clubs, and a number of groups from neighboring communities have been accepted as association members. Currently, the 39 non-profit member clubs can work bingos for a share of the profits. The average share for a club each night can range from $1,800 to $3,500.

Funds raised from a bingo put on by the First Nation's recreation association could go toward the reserve's Boys and Girls Club, which has just started and already has 50 kids enrolled.

"There's nothing for recreation for the children," Steinhauer said. "We've tried a number of times, but it never worked because of lack of funds."

Russ Whitford is the bingo caller at the Lac La Biche bingo hall. He also works for the Beaver Lake band's economic development department.

He sees familiar faces each night in the bingo hall and wants to know why a group from Beaver Lake can't get a day to work at the area bingo hall.

"We are within that area, yet we are getting nothing," he said. "All we are saying from Beaver Lake is that we want our fair share."

He said there is a strong core of volunteers who have been ready for the last four years to put on the aprons and sell bingo tickets.

"The community members from our end know the need is there and are ready," he said.

In a letter sent to the bingo association, the Beaver Lake chief and council also hinted at some alternatives if their latest request for membership is rejected.

"Until there is an equitable solution to this situation from your end, we believe there will be only one reasonable alternative - a partnership of certain communities and their resources to redirect those revenues you have enjoyed and become dependent on."

Whitford wouldn't say if the paragraph meant that Beaver Lake would consider starting up its own bingo association, but said it could be one of the band's options.

"Why should we keep letting the revenues go somewhere else," he said, adding that the band would prefer to negotiate and discuss the problem with the Lac La Biche association before any other options were examined.

"We do have some choices, but we'd prefer to work in a partnership and in co-operation with them," he said.

The Lac La Biche and Area Bingo Association said the Beaver Lake Recreation Association is on it's waiting list - along with 13 other groups.

Bingo association president Celine Berlinguette said when written applications are received from a group wishing to join, they are voted on by the board and then added to the waiting list. There has been only one written application from Beaver Lake, she said, and that resulted in them being placed on the waiting list.

The letter was received in October 1997, yet it was dated October 1995, said Berlinguette.

In the year since the letter was received, Beaver Lake has moved up the waiting list, said Berlinguette.

She said the Beaver Lake group is being treated no differently than any other group. The association must operate within guidelines set out by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Act, she said.

Berlinguette said the association is not going to bump the Beaver Lake group to the top of the waiting list, but she said theycould perhaps work with one of the 39 member groups and arrange to work one of their shifts.

There were 402 bingo slots available this year for the 39 members to fill. Many times those time slots were given up to another group. The decision of which group comes in as a substitute isn't based on the waiting list, said Berlinguette.

"Once the calendar is made up, if someone can't make their time, they'll ask another club to trade with them," she said. "We don't go back to the list. It's worked out amongst the clubs themselves."

This year, the Native Friendship Centre has been scheduled for 35 bingos. Alberta Vocational College has worked 27 and the Metis Nation has had four bingos.