At Apex Of Budget Talk, Duncan Still Defiant

Even with negotiations over the provincial budget at its most critical stage, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is still reportedly disputing positive horse-racing industry numbers which his own minority government has ensured him are accurate

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In an article by The Windsor Star --- just one of hundreds which have recently highlighted the minority government's inexplicably reckless handling of the economically successful and symbiotic slots-at-racetracks program --- Minister Duncan continued to dispel employment and economic impact figures from his minority government and the 2008 Sadinsky Report, which was commissioned by his party.

While presented with staggering numbers indicating how the publicly-backed slots-at-racetracks program has vaulted the Ontario horse-racing industry to become the second-largest agricultural sub-activity --- behind dairy farming but ahead of wheat, cattle, poultry and hogs --- Minister Duncan's responses have made some people wonder if he understands how the program props up and energizes the economy of his Province of Ontario.

In its article, The Windsor Star has quoted Minister Duncan as saying, “Why do they (horse racing) need the (slots) money then, if they’re bringing in so much?” In an attempt to explain to Minister Duncan what most consider a relatively basic concept, the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association has attempted, at nauseam, to break the slots-at-racetracks program down as simply as it can to the minister and his minority government's embattled head, Dalton McGuinty.

In the late 1990s --- an era relative to this, where urban municipalities were not overly warm to the idea of massive gaming expansions within heavily-populated urban cores --- the Ontario government desperately needed gaming revenue. Opting to extend an olive branch to strike a common-sense and economically-symbiotic relationship, the Ontario horse-racing industry allowed the province to jam provincial raceways with cash cows for Ontario coffers, otherwise known as slot machines. Brain surgeons are not needed to figure out that housing a direct form of gaming competition within one's own walls has to come at a price, especially when the tenant takes on virtually all of the overhead and the province benefits overall.

Thus, in a nutshell, the Ontario horse-racing industry and the provincial government came up with the slots-at-racetracks program in the late '90s, a program which sees horse racing receive 20 per cent of the machine's revenue while government takes 80 per cent (To contrast, the State of Ohio has struck a gaming expansion deal with Hard Rock and harness raceway Northfield Park which will see the companies net 66 per cent of the gaming profits, while the state will net 33 per cent.). No matter which way logical people choose to slice it, the result of the Ontario program has been win-win. The Ontario horse-racing industry's cut of the slot machine revenue, which has worked out to be roughly $345 million annually, has allowed the Ontario Government to rake in $1.1-billion through its coffers each year. The program has also allowed the horse-racing industry to pay the government $261-million in direct tax revenue annually. The revenue-sharing agreement has allowed the province to benefit to the tune of $2-billion in annual economic impact. The program has allowed the Ontario horse-racing industry employ more than 35,000 hard-working people full-time each year, and that number balloons to over 60,000 once the bevy of part-time and seasonal workers are brought into account.

The overwhelming economic benefits from the program are vastly more extensive than described here, but is there a chance that Duncan, a Minister of Finance, opted to forego a forensic economic analysis of the program? He has repeatedly, inexplicably and slanderously called the slots-at-racetracks program a "subsidy" --- something a Minister of Finance should understand it clearly is not.

“What has surprised me is how this decision has affected all the others I’m seeing who are not involved in horse racing,” veterinarian Dr. Lotje Kouwenberg was quoted as saying in The Windsor Star report.

“Dwight Duncan (the Ontario Minister of Finance and a Windsor MPP) has no frickin’ idea, and neither does (Premier) Dalton McGuinty,” Ontario breeder Bob Ladouceur told The Windsor Star.

Being more than fair, The Windsor Star gave Minister Duncan and the Ontario Liberals a chance at explaining what is widely being characterized as reckless and inexplicable actions.

“This money can be put to better use,” said Duncan.

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