 By Julieta Belen Correa
January 10th, 2025
Burlington, ON
Ontario’s regulated iGaming sector has seen substantial growth since inception, with recent figures indicating about $14 billion in bets over the reporting period. This environment has attracted multiple industry players looking to expand their presence.
 Golden Matrix Group, known for B2B and B2C gaming technology, has now applied for a license that would allow its subsidiary, Expanse Studios, to enter the Ontario iGaming scene. This attempt to gain a foothold comes as companies increasingly look for ways to broaden their offerings in Canada through online games, where regulated platforms give them a chance to interact with a strong pool of players who appreciate quality gaming experiences.
According to iGaming expert Andreea Stanescu, some of the best online casinos abroad are also accessible to Canadians. These platforms provide even stiffer competition for local offerings as they often operate with fewer restrictions and are therefore able to provide features like anonymous gambling, easier registrations, higher limits, and more expansive payment methods that include cryptocurrency.
However, despite that competition, locally registered have been performing exceptionally. Golden Matrix’s interest in Ontario is part of a push that began early this year. The company believes that approval could significantly influence its revenue streams, though it acknowledges the complexity and time typically required to receive the regulatory go-ahead.
Approval times can range from six to 12 months, and it is not guaranteed. Still, the region’s structure makes it appealing for operators capable of meeting requirements and providing content that can stand out among existing competitors.
Expanse Studios, operating under the Golden Matrix umbrella, already has a presence in more than 50 regulated gaming jurisdictions. These include a broad mix of slot titles, table games, crash games, and social casino offerings. Access to Ontario would allow the studio to introduce its suite of games to a new, sizable audience.
According to Expanse CEO Damjan Stamenkovic, completing the filing is a critical milestone that underscores the brand’s commitment to competing in major regulated markets and delivering top-tier content to players. Observers suggest that the company’s strong track record in other jurisdictions could help it secure player interest.
Before finalizing its application, Expanse Studios sought guidance from Canadian regulatory specialists Segev LLP. Representing the brand, Managing Partner Alon Segev praised the studio’s focus on compliance and standards. If the studio’s games make their way into Ontario’s ecosystem, they may help diversify the local catalogue, encouraging further competition.
Golden Matrix’s performance adds context to this strategic move. In Q3 2024, the company reported its highest-ever revenue of $41 million—an 85% annual increase—attributing the jump to strategic initiatives and strength in both products and teams.
Beyond Ontario, Golden Matrix has filed for permission to operate as a B2B provider in Brazil’s emerging market. Its Meridianbet acquisition for an estimated $300 million USD ($430 million CAD) demonstrates the group’s confidence in tapping multiple jurisdictions as they become available.
 Ontario’s move toward regulated iGaming came at a time when Canadian gambling laws were shifting. Following the passage of Bill C-218 in 2021, single-event sports betting became an option, expanding the scope of wagers beyond traditional parlay formats.
The Ontario market stands out for encouraging third-party providers to introduce new experiences, contributing to a diverse set of regulated offerings for consumers across the province and the country.
 By Staff
January 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Calling #BurlON artists!
From the city –
Here’s your chance to apply for the 2025 Burlington Arts and Culture Fund. This grant provides $75,000 to local artists, multicultural groups and arts and culture organizations.
Continue reading Grant fund provides $75,000 to local artists, multicultural groups, arts and culture organizations
 By Staff
January 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 Average asking rents for all residential property types in Canada dropped 3.2% in 2024, reaching a 17-month low of $2,109 in December. The decline in 2024 follows rent growth of 8.6% in 2023 and 12.1% in 2022, making this the first annual rent decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Despite the recent drop, rents remain up 16.8% over the past five years.
The rental market softened across most parts of the country last year.
Continue reading Are we beginning to see some rent relief?
 By Staff
January 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Karina, Pam, Adam, Marianne, Rory, Jackie, and Catherine are getting together to have their picture taken.
Here is the way the city communications people described the event:
 Transit terminal on John Street will be torn down something in 2025. Honourable Karina Gould, Member of Parliament for Burlington, Pam Damoff, Member of Parliament for Oakville North—Burlington, Adam Van Koeverden, Member of Parliament for Milton, Her Worship Marianne Meed Ward, Burlington Mayor, Rory Nisan, Burlington Deputy Mayor for the Environment and Jacqueline Johnson, Commissioner of Community Services, City of Burlington, Catherine Baldelli, Director of Burlington Transit, City of Burlington.
Some unnecessary flourishes in the preceeding paragraph.
This upgraded photo op is to announce that the federal government is sending the city more money for transit
By Staff
January 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
That city budget, the one that laid a 7.51% increase on the citizens of the city – the one that took the cumulative tax increase between 2018, when the current Council was first elected and then re-elected in 2002, up to 65.10%
 Continue reading BRAG gets a response from the city on their 14 questions
 By Staff
January 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 We did a short piece a week or so ago on the Chamber of Commerce membership numbers.
At the time we reported that there were 15 new members and included an image showing who the members were.
What we reported was somewhat misleading – the 15 new members were organizations that joined in the month of December.
The number of new members for 2024 was 234 bringing the total current membership up to 812.
The highest Chamber membership was 1100; that was a decade or two ago.
Continue reading There is more to the Chamber of Commerce than many realize
By Staff
January 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 Students in grades 4, 5 and 6 are invited to answer the question “What does home mean to you?”
The annual Meaning of Home Habitat for Humanity writing contest is open until February 21, 2025,
The goal this year is t0 entice 850+ student submissions across Halton Mississauga and Dufferin Region!
Access to safe and affordable housing continues to be a top priority for all Canadians, including children, who understand how it can provide their family with a place to pursue their dreams and build a better life. Our model of affordable homeownership helps families in need of housing to buy their own home through an affordable mortgage geared to income — helping them build a strong foundation and the financial stability to plan for their children’s futures.
Continue reading What does home mean to grades 4,5 and 6 students?
By Tom Parkin
January 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Support from Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson, a former tenured professor at the University of Toronto, might be a valuable signal to U.S. Republicans, but it’s a big backfire among Canadians
 Poilievre and Peterson in conversation. They did a webcast that was two hours in length. The Poilievre strategists thought a discussion with celebrity identitarian Jordan Peterson would let Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reach Canadians directly, unchecked by pesky reporters and their pesky journalistic standards.
It did. And it was a big mistake.
Continue reading Poilievre’s Musk and Peterson backing about as helpful as a KKK endorsement
 By Staff
January 8th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
This fancy-tailed little asshat has been living peacefully in my walls for over a year. I didn’t mind.
 Noisy, uninvited, and given its private unique exit. But a couple of months ago he began removing bits of drywall on his side of the wall, in an increasingly noisy and concerted nighttime campaign to immigrate to my side of the wall.
I am not looking for a housemate.
I called Skedaddle. They sent over a crew of nine people and quoted $2200. To oust a single squirrel. I had no words.
That’s a lie. I had words. I did not have $2200.
 The squirrel was shown the door.
Continue reading What do you do when an uninvited creature comes through the bedroom wall?
 By Staff
January 8th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
With “Dry January” underway, encouraging people to consider reducing their alcohol consumption, the United States’ top doctor has also issued a call to label alcohol as cancer-causing.
 Brock University Professor of Health Sciences Dan Malleck But Brock University Professor of Health Sciences Dan Malleck says there needs to be a more nuanced approach to discussions regarding alcohol consumption before people rush to chucking their wine collections in the bin for good.
“The anti-alcohol perspective is our default setting,” he says. “We are too willing to accept research showing it’s bad and be skeptical of evidence that says otherwise. This is a problem.”
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s advisory, which was released on Friday, Jan. 3, warns that alcohol consumption can increase the risk of cancer and that an updated health warning label is needed on alcoholic beverages to identify that risk.
These advisories are typically reserved for issues deemed to require immediate awareness and action and can be associated with major changes in a nation’s health habits. The surgeon general’s 1964 report on smoking is one such example.
Continue reading U.S. surgeon general calls for cancer warnings on alcohol, Brock expert says it’s not that simple
 By Ray Rivers
January 8th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Civility…. a disposition of the heart… a way of seeing others as our moral equals and treating them with the respect that they’re owed and deserve.
 Justin Trudeau with his father Pierre Trudeau was humble, his leaving message was thoughtful, graceful, polite and respectful. He spoke well of Canadians, even with mounting poll numbers indicating that most Canadians don’t feel the same way about him. His demeanour was stoic, his responses to the media were honest and straightforward. The entire event Monday morning was clearly an emotional moment for a man who had once been hoping to surpass his father’s record of service, but clearly was not his father and had failed.
The media and opposition pundits, still keep talking about why Justin isn’t resigning now and everybody is complaining that he didn’t do it earlier. That is not helpful. He will be gone before Parliament resumes on March 24th. The federal election will be in mid to late May 2025. And we should all be grateful that we’ll avoid an unneeded early winter election.
Continue reading Rivers: Take down the F**K Trudeau Flags
 By Tom Parkin
January 8th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump again today said Canada should be the 51st state and more than one in five Poilievre Conservative supporters agree, according to a recent Leger poll.
 Jagmeet Singh’s NDP supporters most patriotic with 94% rejecting Trump’s annexation, Leger poll says. The good news is a large of majority, 73 per cent of Conservatives, do support Canada.
Supporters of Jagmeet Singh’s NDP were the most patriotic with 94 per cent rejecting Trump’s idea. Among Liberal supporters, 89 per cent rejected U.S. annexation as did 88 per cent of Bloc Quebecois supporters.
Continue reading One in five Poilievre Conservative supporters say Canada should be the 51st state
By Staff
January 8th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Are we looking at a Doug Ford army?
The Ontario government has launched “Operation Deterrence,” the province’s preparedness and planning framework for enhanced security at international borders and tackling criminal activity that is harming people on both sides of the border.
 RCMP officers welcoming immigrants at an illegal border crossing. “Ontario has been calling on the federal government to step up and address safety and security concerns at the border. We need to see words turned into visible action,” said Premier Doug Ford. “In the meantime, Ontario is stepping up with Operation Deterrence to crack down on illegal border crossings and illegal guns and drugs. A more coordinated, Team Canada approach that includes more boots on the ground is the only way to detect, deter and disrupt illegal activity and ensure the safety and security of Canadian and American communities.”
As part of Operation Deterrence, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has an emergency response team of 200 officers that, along with frontline and speciality officers, have been and will continue to be engaged to enhance border security.
Continue reading Premier Ford has mobilized Provincial Police who will work with the RCMP to secure Ontario border with US
 By Pepper Parr
August 5, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
This article was published ten years ago. The focus was on density and traffic congestion. Has any progress been made?
What would Burlington look like with 100 Strata’s built around the city?
 This is what the Strata looks like. Councillor John Taylor thinks the city is going to need 100 of these in the next 25 years to meet the intensification target set by the province. What’s a Strata? That’s the condominium the Molinaro gropup built on Maple Avenue.
That was the potential ward 3 city Councillor John Taylor tossed on the table during a city council Committee of the whole recently.
 John Taylor, Councillor for ward 3 and the Dean of Burlington’s city council Taylor puts the city’s current population at 175,000 people – the signs as you enter the city say 176,000.
The Growing in Place program – that is a provincial government directive, calls for Burlington to have a population of 195,000 by 2031
That number is thought to rise to 210,000 by 2041. The projection for 2041 number is something that is still being worked out by the Region and the four municipalities in Halton.
We can quibble all we want but the bald fact is that between now and 2041 the city is expected to add 35,000 people to the population total.
And because there is no development north of the Hwy 5 – 407 line – all those people have to be tucked in south of that line.
Taylor says his math works like this.
Continue reading Where do we put 35,000 people in the next 25 years? And what will the city have in place in the way of roads and transit to move these people around?
By Staff
January 7th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Most of this article was originally published in the Toronto Star
In his first public statement since announcing his intent to step down as prime minister and Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau said Tuesday “there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell” that Canada would become the 51st American state, following U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s explosive comments that he would use “economic force” to lay claim to Canada.
“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner,” Trudeau wrote in a post on X Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the incoming president was asked whether he would consider using “military force” to annex Canada, given Trump’s refusal to rule out resorting to such measures to secure control of Greenland and the Panama Canal.
 Artificially drawn line: really? “No. Economic force, because Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where he recommitted to imposing steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico as part of his America-first agenda when he returns to the White House later this month.
“You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like … it would also be much better for national security.”
Trump went on to state that the U.S. spends “hundreds of billions” of dollars to “protect” and “take care of Canada,” clarifying that while the U.S. has “no right” to claim a sovereign nation, Canada should simply become an American state if it is receiving so much support from its southern neighbour.
Trump said he asked Trudeau, during the prime minister’s trip to Florida in late November, what would happen if the U.S. were to no longer “subsidize” Canada.
“I said, ‘What would happen if we didn’t do it?’ He said, ‘Canada would dissolve,’” Trump said.
“They send us hundreds of thousands of cars. They make a lot of money with that. They send us a lot of other things that we don’t need. We don’t need their milk. We got a lot of milk. We’ve got a lot of everything, and we don’t need any of it,” the president-elect added.
The Gazette asks:
Just how ignorant is this man? He doesn’t understand the Constitution he is sworn to protect. He doesn’t think he is subject to the decision of a jury and is now taking on Imperial airs – and he hasn’t even been sworn in. By the time he is sworn in he will have been found to be a convicted felon – on the 10th we will learn what the judge is going to hand out as a sentence. Let him run the country virtually from Alaska before Canada annexes that state from America.
By Staff
January 7th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The postal strike put a serious dent in the funds that most of charitable organizations depended on.
The federal government announced a change in the date that tax receipts would be valid.
Still time to help out the people you have supported in the past.
That assumes of course that you have any money after the holiday spending.
By Pepper Parr
January 7, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
With some research in hand, we can now report what tax increases for Burlington residents look like.
 The percentages show the increase in total tax revenue as shown in each year’s approved budget. Using the year-over-year tax increase, the cumulative numbers comes in at an astounding 65.10%
Continue reading Cumulative tax increases delivered by the current council in the last six years amounts to 65.10%
 By Tim Parkin
January 7th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
For nearly 10 years, Justin Trudeau governed in the rear-view mirror, driving slowly in the left lane to prevent the NDP from overtaking, but letting lots of traffic by on the right.
Trudeau would regularly speak in progressive liberal tones, contrasting himself to conservatives.
But pretty words weren’t backed by action. His swerves were to preserve himself, not to maneouver to a new position from which to better accomplish his goals for Canadians. He had no such goals, except to have them elect him again.
A party of strategic centrism, not liberalism
 Trudeau would regularly speak in progressive liberal tones, contrasting himself to conservatives. With no vision for reshaping government or Canadian society, the Liberals operated by reaction, buffeted by crisis after crisis rather than pushing through them with eyes set on their political North Pole.
Justin Trudeau was not a liberal, though he could speak like one. In actions, he was a centrist, but not one of policy practicality who borrows from different traditions to reach objectives. Rather, his centrism was one of strategy and freedom of maneuver.
Trudeau said he would help working people join the middle class, but stood back while inflation ravaged paycheques and home ownership dreams disappeared.
He called himself a feminist and a proponent of reconciliation, but fired the strongest women in cabinet and fought against Indigenous kids in court.
He was a defender of healthcare but gave premiers healthcare dollars that they spent on tax cuts or spa palaces – whatever they wished.
He declared himself against the separatists and conservatives but sabotaged electoral reform that would have crushed the Bloc Quebecois and sidelined the Conservatives.
The Liberal Party let down actual liberals, who were habitually abandoned and betrayed.
Ironically, Singh’s fights with Trudeau created his legacy
 If a Trudeau legacy exists, If a Trudeau legacy exists, it’s the one the NDP had to fight with him to create.
For years, Jagmeet Singh’s NDP fought Trudeau over childcare, dental care, pharamacare and anti-scab laws. Singh’s NDP campaigned on them, tabled private members bills about them, put motions and petitions to the Commons. They endlessly fought the Liberals over them.
The Liberals were against them all until the moment they discovered their survival depended upon being in favour, when they immediately tried to claim credit. Even then, Singh twice had to threaten to bring down the Liberal government if written and signed promises weren’t kept.
Liberal Party loyalty always lay with Trudeau’s machinations
The claim is often made the Liberal Party of Canada died somewhere around 2009 to be resurrected as the Justin Trudeau Party.
 Certainly as Trudeau careened and swerved, with eyes focused in the rear-view mirror, blocking all attempted passing, the current Liberal MPs stuck with him through it all. Certainly as Trudeau careened and swerved, with eyes focused in the rear-view mirror, blocking all attempted passing, the current Liberal MPs stuck with him through it all.
When Jody Wilson-Raybould was kicked out of cabinet and caucus, anonymously and personally attacked for refusing to interfere in a criminal prosecution, only one other Liberal MP stood with her. She’s also gone.
The rest stuck with Trudeau, waiting to turn on him after the NDP committed to defeat him, after it was obvious Trudeau would quit, after there was a power vacuum their ambitions sought to fill.
An election is now coming. One choice is cuts by Poilievre. The other is Singh’s NDP, which fought Trudeau, battles proven by the wins no one in the upcoming Liberal leader race had the courage to fight for.
 By Eric Stern
January 7th. 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 Eric Stern Monday, January 6th was the first day of skiing for “Senior Weekday Pass” holders at Glen Eden.
For an early bird price of $139., you can ski from Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm., throughout the season.
If you missed the early bird date you can still buy a senior weekday pass, valid until the end of the season, for $201.
It has been about 10 months since my last ski. About halfway down the hill, on my first run, the existential question “Why am I here?” popped into my mind. By the third run, the endorphins had kicked in and I started having fun.
One question remains, will I be too stiff to walk tomorrow?
Continue reading Glen Eden opens – Sterns now has something to BRAG about.
By Pepper Parr
January 6th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Just how many not-for-profit organizations are there in the Region?
 There are a lot of them – some are very well run. Unfortunately – there are far too many that are very poorly run.
Community Development, an organization that has had its own governance problems in the past has taken the lead on improving the level of governance for non-profits in the Region.
They are holding three workshops that volunteers should be required to attend if they want to serve on a board.
Board Governance Essentials Workshop SeriesNavigate the complexities of non-profit governance with confidence.
Continue reading Community Development Halton Undertakes to Educate the Not for Profit sector
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