Belleville's Mayor On Racetrack Status

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Published: January 16, 2012 01:54 pm EST

“Macallan is looking at taking over the whole company [Baymount] which I believe is a good thing because Macallan seems to have financial backing. It's just a question of is it going to delay

the process with the OLG."

Those words come from Belleville's Mayor Neil Ellis regarding the much-delayed racetrack-casino project for the city. Macallan Equity is the company that provided Baymount with the funding for the venture, which for years hasn’t moved past the ceremonial silver shovel stage. Ellis is glad to have Macallan on board and is optimistic that the plan to bring harness racing back to the Quinte area has more traction than ever.

The Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp. (OLG) has stated in the past that whenever a new partner is proposed, the due diligence process must begin all over again. When asked by Trot Radio's Norm Borg about the possibility of more delays, Ellis says there seems to be mixed messages coming from different OLG contacts.

"They knew Macallan was a partner in general to begin with, so...that's the message we're trying to figure out here. I've had some calls into OLG and we're trying to discuss that but they're quite unsure because of the information they've gotten from Baymount."

Is this another in a long series of dark linings to the silver cloud that is the Belleville Racino? Ellis doesn’t see it that way. While he tries to be an optimist by nature he also realizes that now the parties are under the gun to produce. According to Ellis, if things aren’t rolling by the Spring, he feels "you’ll see a lot of lawsuits."

To hear the full interview between Borg and Mayor Eliis, click the Play button below.

Episode 248 – Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis

Audio Format: MP3 audio

Host: Norm Borg


Please note that the opinions expressed in the featured interview are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect Rideau Carleton Raceway and/or Standardbred Canada.

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