‘They’ve turned me into an inconvenience store’

A local convenience store owner says the Yukon Lottery Commission has turned his business into an "inconvience store."

A local convenience store owner says the Yukon Lottery Commission has turned his business into an “inconvience store.”

In a matter of a few weeks, Heather’s Snack Haven in Porter Creek went from being busy with Keno players to being faced with the termination of its Lottery Retailer Agreement.

After their spring meeting in April, the commission’s board of directors sent letters, dated May 5,to the five establishments in the Yukon with Keno monitors.

The letter informed them of the board’s decision to remove Keno monitors from every location in the Yukon by June 1.

Keno will still be available as an online game, but patrons will no longer be able to use the video format, which allows them to play every five minutes.

The reason for removing the Keno monitors is that being able to play Keno so frequently causes gambling promlems, said Melanie Graham, chairperson of the commission’s board of directors.

On April 28, the board sent a letter to Heather Achtymichuk, president of Heather’s Snack Haven, saying her Keno screen will be removed before June 1 since her location does not meet the established seating criteria for owning a Keno monitor.

The April 28 letter confirmed that her location has seating for six, and the required seating is 15.

Ken Achtymichuk, vice-president of Heather’s Haven, was surprised to read the commission could only confirm six seats because there are at least 15 seats in his store, he said.

Ken Achtymichuk and Graham met May 13 to discuss the April 28 letter.

A letter sent to Heather’s Haven May 15 says: “This is to confirm my understanding of a conversation with Ken Achtymichuk of May 13; notably that Mr. Achtymichuk has threatened court action against the Yukon Lottery Commission ... and that he plans to file an injunction to prevent the Yukon Lottery Commission or its representatives from access to the premises for removal of the monitor.”

But Ken Achtymichuk says he did not threaten court action during the meeting.

“All I said is I do have an option (to file an injunction),” he told the Star.

The May 15 letter went on to advise Heather’s Haven that its Lottery Retailer Agreement will be terminated May 25.

That means Heather’s Haven will be unable to have a Keno monitor on the premises, but the owners will not be allowed to sell lottery tickets.

This would mean a loss of 30 per cent of his sales, said Ken Achtymichuk.

In addition to that 30 per cent, Heather’s Haven would lose anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent in sales of items customers purchase along with their ticket, said Achtymichuk.

“They’ve turned me into an inconvenience store,” said Achtymichuk, because people aren’t going to buy their cigarettes from Heather’s Haven, then go elsewhere for their lottery ticket.

“I worked my ass off for two years bulding this clientele and now it’s gone in a wiff,” he said.

“How can they, in a matter of two weeks’ time, shut down my business?”

After Ken’s career as an engine worker, he and Heather Achtymichuk opened Heather’s Haven about two years ago. They used the money Ken Achtymichuk won from a case with the territorial workers’ compensation board (WCB).

“Ten years I battled with WCB and I never encountered anything as vicious as this,” he said about the lottery commision’s actions. “This is disrespectful, vicious and vindictive.”

Graham said that not only does Ken Achtymichuk have the option to appeal the commission’s decision to terminate his Lottery Retailer Agreement, but he can also appeal the decision to remove the Keno monitor from his store.

Ken Achtymichuk has decided not to appeal.

“What am I going to do - stand in front of these board members and let them make more accusations?” he asked.

On Thursday, he filed a court injunction seeking to prevent the Yukon Lottery Commission and its agents from removing of his point-of-sale lottery terminals and equipment from his place of business.

“At least with the injunction, I have the possibility of stopping them,” he said.

He would prefer to have a judge decide on the future of lottery sales in his store rather than the board, he added.

Asked about the injunction this morning, Graham had not yet heard about it and refused to comment.

Ken Achtymichuk filed the injunction because of the commission’s failure to exercise fairness in its decision to terminate his Lottery Retailer Agreement, and because the decision was biased and constituted an abused of process, said the injunction application filed by 40070 Yukon Ltd., operating under the name Heather’s Haven.

“All I did was I stood up for myself,” he said.

A judge is slated to decide on the next week.