With a new hotel and casino poised to open in Ottawa’s south end later this year, the region’s other major gaming facility is making a splash of its own. The Quebec government announced Sunday it plans to spend $50 million to build a new convention centre at Casino du Lac-Leamy. Loto-Québec is financing the project, […]
With a new hotel and casino poised to open in Ottawa’s south end later this year, the region’s other major gaming facility is making a splash of its own.
The Quebec government announced Sunday it plans to spend $50 million to build a new convention centre at Casino du Lac-Leamy.
Loto-Québec is financing the project, which will boost the total convention and meeting space at the casino complex in Hull to more than 100,000 square feet.
“Gatineau and the Outaouais region have all the assets to become a leading business tourism destination,” the province’s tourism minister, Caroline Proulx, said in a statement in French.
“Thanks to this new infrastructure and the management provided by Loto-Québec, a partner recognized for its event expertise, our government is delivering a project that lives up to the ambitions of the area. Tourism is a true economic driver, and I am pleased to see Gatineau, one of Quebec’s major tourism gateways, better positioned than ever to reap the benefits.”
Construction of the new convention centre is expected to take about two years to complete. Proulx said the project will come at “zero cost” to Gatineau residents because it’s being funded by Loto-Québec, a provincial Crown corporation that oversees lottery and gaming activities in the province.
The Quebec tourism ministry also announced it would provide Tourisme Outaouais with an additional $1.5 million for marketing efforts aimed at attracting new business events to the region.
In addition, the ministry is chipping in another $1 million, which will be earmarked for new winter tourism offerings in the Outaouais.
In 2023, the Outaouais region was home to 870 tourism-related businesses that employed a total of 17,500 people, the news release said. The Quebec government estimates that tourism businesses contributed about $685 million to the local economy in 2022.
Geneviève Latulippe, president and chief executive of Tourisme Outaouais, said the new facility will help raise the region’s profile among convention organizers and draw more visitors to Gatineau and surrounding areas.
“For several years now, Tourisme Outaouais has been working to rally partners around this project, so that the region has greater space to host conventions and large-scale national and international events, in keeping with its status as Québec’s third official tourist gateway,” Latulippe said in a French statement.
The announcements come as work on a new entertainment complex on the other side of the Ottawa River enters its final stages.
The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa is slated to open later this year at the site of the former Rideau Carleton Raceway and Casino on Albion Road South. The $350-million project will include a six-storey, 150-room hotel as well as a 24-7 gaming floor, 10 bars, restaurants and lounges, and an 1,800-seat live performance venue. 
