by BETTER FARMING STAFF
The president of the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association found much that was positive in an interim report Friday afternoon by a panel of former provincial government ministers appointed to look into the Liberal government’s controversial March decision to cancel the long-standing Slots at Racetracks Program.
Sue Leslie says “for the most part” the interim report was positive. “We would like to have seen it go further,” Leslie says.
The negative side of the report is that it may not give trainers enough confidence to bid on animals at the annual yearling auctions coming up next week. “Breeders already took the butt end of this. They are getting annihilated right now,” Leslie says.
Reinstatement of the Slots at Racetracks Program would be a mistake, says the report which was released on Friday. But the panel also found that $50 million over three years isn’t nearly enough to ensure a successful transition for the province’s race track industry because it will be experiencing a 63 per cent loss in income. The authors are former minister of varying political stripes; NDPer Elmer Buchanan, Progressive Conservative John Snobelen, and Liberal John Wilkinson.
In a statement released Friday, Agriculture Minister Ted McMeekin insists that the old program costs taxpayers $345 million a year, and calls it “poor public policy.” The province continues to focus on balancing its budget “while protecting vital services that families rely on, like health care and education,” Buchanan says.
The horse racing industry “needs to display financial transparency,” McMeekin’s statement says.
“The government needs to forge a new partnership with the industry and keep it as part of the gaming strategy,” Leslie says. She expects that government and industry will negotiate a new strategy over the next six weeks.
Mark Wales, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture agrees. The report says the industry “is too important to let go,” he says. It represents $2-2.5 billion of economic activity annually. People “are making fairly drastic decisions,” he says. “The industry has got to evolve and that has got to happen quickly,” he says.
McMeekin expects to receive a final report on the slots issue by the end of September. The panel was announced in early June.
A summary of the report is available at http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/about/transition/interimreport08172012.htm#summary BF
Comments
Horse Racing is a Want Industry not a need industry
With 25% of all racetracks in North America operating in Ontario, it should be clear that the Ontario industry has been overbuilt and needs a reality check.
For what the people spend on a horse tell them to look after the racing end themself. Its gambling at a race track be like the rest of the gameing joints,live without everyone investment or close it down. I heard a guy braging in the states that they made over half a million this year on one of his horses, how can you give money to a sport like that.
The claim by OFA President, Mark Wales, that the horse racing industry is "too important to let go", ignores the fact that the only reason the industry became that way is because the people in it, as well as organizations like the OFA, refused to realize the industry was built on legislative entitlement, not economic fundamentals. The lesson agriculture should learn, but won't, especially in supply management and among corn producers who support ethanol, is that it took the horse racing industry only a dozen years to go from having no legislative entitlement to wealth transfers, to believing (and claiming) that they should be entitled to it forever. The OFA would have been far-more responsible if, instead of hand-wringing now, they had spent the past dozen years reminding the race horse industry (as well as supply management, and more-recently, ethanol) that their industry was a "house of cards" which could collapse at any moment.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Unsigned, unverifiable comment deleted
Dwight Duncan’s 2011 budget spoke glowingly of OLG Slots at Racetrack Program’s contribution to Ontario’s finances.
According to Budget 2011, slot machines at racetracks were responsible, in part, for $1.5 billion dollars of hospital operating expenses, $120 million dollars for the Ontario Trillium Foundation, $41 million dollars for problem gambling and related programs, $10 million for amateur sports, and $69 million dollars for general government priorities (pg 234 of Budget 2011).
The OLG Slots at Racetracks Program was credited in Budget 2011 with providing $345 million dollars of support for Ontario’s Agricultural sector and $76 million dollars for municipalities.
“The Finance Minister needs to ensure he has his facts straight before he pulls the plug on this highly profitable OLG program.” Said Sue Leslie. “Nothing is ‘secret’ about the OLG Slots at Racetrack program as the Ontario Liberals falsely claim in their attack ads.” Leslie added.
Ontario’s Horse Racing Industry is responsible for 31,441 full time jobs in Ontario, and up to 60,000 jobs when including part-time and seasonal work. Horse racing industry expenses in Ontario total approximately $2 billion dollars per year with 80% ($1.6 billion) of those expenses being incurred in rural Ontario.
“Attacking a major industry like ours with false claims is hurting, not helping Ontario’s economy.” Said Leslie.
http://cosaonline.com/featured/misleading-ads-from-ontario-liberals-rega...
Accusing the government of issuing half truths by issuing your own, isn't being either responsible, or overly-helpful. While the racetrack program may be responsible for creating jobs, these jobs are, by economic definition, fewer than the jobs which would have been created if monies weren't transferred, by legislative decree, to the horse racing industry in the first place. In addition, this anti-government propaganda ignores the fact that while money from the slots program may be contributing $1.5 billion in hospital operating expenses, the reason for cutting the allocation to the horse sector is so that the slots progarm can contribute even more than $1.5 billion in hospital operating expenses. Therefore, when it comes to half-truths, the above release is more odious than most, and should be immediately discredited, and ignored.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Heat, a dry place to live and food are needs of society. While horse racing may create jobs those jobs are much like beauracrates and politicians. We can live without them and crime may even go down.
Unsigned comment deleted
The minister needs to do as they say of others.
The Province also needs to display financial transparency in all accounts. E-health, ornge, consulanting contracts, agricorp, etc.
Post new comment