Sault loses half its lottery and gaming business pursuit team

Five weeks after its new executive director took charge and three weeks after layoffs began at the local Gateway Casino, Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre slashed its lottery and gaming cluster to half its size Tuesday.

"It's a matching of resources to what the opportunities are in the community. The opportunities are good quality but not the numbers we had thought," says Peter Bruijns, who assumed duties as the Innovation Centre's new executive director on May 29.

Bruijns confirms to SooToday that downsizing the lottery and gaming pursuit initiative was his idea, approved recently by his board of directors.

When the axe dropped today on the sixth floor of 99 Foster Dr., project lead Leo Tiberi and two colleagues lost their jobs.

Tiberi retired two years ago as Sault College's vice president academic, after 32 years in post-secondary education.

He was spearheading Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre (SSMIC)'s UP cluster development, designed to leverage the Sault's long history of innovation in lottery and gaming to "develop and increase awareness of opportunities for better business and career success for companies and professionals looking to capitalize on the expansion and transformation of the industry."

Other divisions at SSMIC are also under review, but with an eye to growth, not more job cuts, Bruijns tells SooToday.

SSMIC hasn't given up on the gaming sector.

Two full-timers remain on the project team, with two other SSMIC staffers assigned part-time to lottery and gaming duties.

Bruijns says additional clerical and administrative assistance may be provided to the pursuit team.

Two positions lost today had fixed-term contracts that would have expired next spring.

By shortening the term of those contracts, additional resources and funding will be available to allow the cluster to continue pursuing lottery and gaming opportunities beyond next spring, Bruijns said.

"We see a lot of very interesting projects that should yield jobs, both retention and attraction," he said.

"Overall, the lottery and gaming market is changing a lot," Bruijns told SooToday. "Automation, global and technology pressures, regulatory pressures, and a general pressure on cost reduction."

Today's downsizing was "just a good business reorganization that needed to occur," he said.