For months, the Liberal government has referred to Ontario horse racing's share of the slots-at-racetracks partnership as a "subsidy". One MPP, who is featured in the May issue of Trot Magazine, wonders if Ontario's Finance Minister truly understands the subsidy concept
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In the May State Of The Industry issue of Trot, MPP Jeff Yurek is featured in an April tour of the Dorchester Downs Training Centre in his riding of Elgin-Middlesex-London. The article notes Yurek's confusion over the government's decision to end the partnership with racing, noting it's very much an asset to all parties involved.
On Monday in the Ontario Legislature, Yurek stood up for horse racing by asking why the Liberal government has consistently refused to call the slots-at-racetracks deal a partnership while using the word "subsidy".
As Yurek points out, a government uses tax money to subsidize a program or business. Horse racing does not and has not received any money from taxpayers in the slots-at-racetracks deal, yet the entire Liberal Party - including Premier Dalton McGuinty and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan - have painted horse racing's share of the arrangement with the subsidy brush.
The following statement comes from Monday's House of Commons transcript, as MPP Yurek addressed the fiscal health of the province.
Despite all this, the Liberals are trying to sell this budget as their cure, their tough medicine that will send us down the road to a balanced budget and prosperity. It is no doubt the reason that the Liberals titled their budget Strong Action for Ontario, and yet when we get into the details, there’s nothing all that tough or strong about it. The McGuinty government’s favourite tactic is, promise to take action tomorrow without having to take real action today.
I think one of the problems is that the Minister of Finance just isn’t understanding finance. For instance, up until yesterday, the government was very adamant about cutting the so-called subsidies to the horse racing industry. When you use the term “subsidy,” this sounds like a very reasonable thing to do. After all, a subsidy uses money collected through taxes and puts it forward to some program or business. If, in fact, the government is paying the horse industry a subsidy, cutting it would enhance the province’s fiscal position. But I have just one question for the Minister of Finance: Does the government use tax revenue to subsidize the horse industry through the slots-at-raceways program? The answer is no. I would hope the government realizes this, because the agreement between the OLG and the horse industry is very clear. The horse industry does not receive a dime until someone inserts a coin into a slot machine located at their track. This is not a subsidy; it’s actually a revenue-sharing agreement.
I’m sure the minister will tell me he has made some responsible concessions. The reason I bring this up is because before the budget was released, the Minister of Finance made the slots-at-raceways program a very big and public issue. Given the amount of time he has dedicated to talking about it, one would be forgiven for thinking that this one measure in itself might balance the budget.
He tried using an example of how the government was going to prioritize health care and education over less pertinent items. In all his tough talk, the minister failed to mention how he would make up the $1 billion in profit the government receives from the program. That’s right. One program, the slots-at-racetracks program, is not a subsidy, but it actually is providing $1 billion that is used to fund essential services like health care and education.
This is our Minister of Finance: someone who doesn’t know the difference between an inflow and an outflow, a subsidy from a revenue-sharing agreement. This is the man in charge of the province’s finances, a man who would cut a revenue source that provides $1 billion each year just because he doesn’t know the definition of the word “subsidy.” It’s either that or all the minister’s talk of horse racing was less about actual finance but instead a political game he was playing to stick it to rural Ontario."
There's an old maxim that
There's an old maxim that goes "Figures don't lie, but liars figure". I would think that this applies to many, if not most politicians - especially those representing the Liberal party of Ontario.
As a long time fan of horse
As a long time fan of horse racing (though I have often been critical of some aspects of it) I have decided to throw my support behind the horsepeople. Below is an excerpt of my letter emailed today to Mr McGuinty, Mr Hudak, and my MPP.
Hello Mr. McGuinty and fellow MPPs,
I am a 49 year old male who has lived in Toronto all my life. I have at times voted Liberal and at other times PC. I am writing to let you know how very disappointed I am in certain government initiatives.
To begin with I am at stark disagreement on your stance with our doctors. Any Ontarian will tell you we do not want to see our health care tocuhed and services taken away and reduced. The fight you are picking with the doctors can only result in harming the quality of care we currently receive which is not the greatetst to begin with. Mr McGuinty you introduced a so called health tax your first year in office which was supposed to provide quality health care. Now you say that is not enough.
Secondly, I am appalled at your treatment of the horse racing industry . I was once a race horse owner. I can assure you many jobs will be lost by the irresponsible position of renenging on the slots at tracks agreement. As a horse owner my bills included paying trainers, drivers, vets, medicine, equipment, feed, transportation etc. There are so many spinoff jobs from the racing industry that your government fails to acknowledge. Losing these jobs will be devastating not only for those directly involved but to the agricultural industry and to the Ontario and Canadian economy as well.
These are terribly thought out measures initiated only to provide a band aid solution to many years of the Liberal government overspending and terribly mismanaging the province finances.
I do understand the economy has suffered due to the global financial crisis. I happen to work for a large downtown investment firm and have seen this unwind first hand. That however does not excuse the governments misues of the taxpayers dollars and the current measure you are looking at too fix the problem.
Mr McGuinty your government has a long list of failed measures such as Ornge, ehealth, education and so on.
As a taxpayer of this province I demand that you re-evaluate these initiatives which were never suggested by the Drummond report to begin with.
Unless you do so please do not come knocking on my door for my vote.
Regards
Joe R
Toronto , Ont
Lawsuit!!!!! I agree!!!!
Lawsuit!!!!! I agree!!!! Have an injuction against the liberals. Bring them to court!! Get the lawyers involved!!!! Boycott all the slots in Ontario!!!
Didn't McGuinty bring in a
Didn't McGuinty bring in a health surtax of which I pay $750 per year to bring health carte to Ontarians. This government has no clue how to govern or to look after the provinces finances.
khayward LAWSUIT LAWSUIT
khayward
LAWSUIT LAWSUIT LAWSUIT LAWSUIT LAWSUIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All this blogging is doing NOTHING.After two months of this NOBODY has done what should be done.TODAY,not tomorow,Serve THEM ALL with a lawsuit.In a lawsuit you want to sue for FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION by Duncan.Let him explain to a judge what a subsidy is and that they were taking subsidy away from horseman.We all know this is not a subsidy.This is where the fraudulent misrep comes into effect.Your all being to nice.As far as liberals are concerned its a DONE DEAL.
KH
I'm a Yank from the outside
I'm a Yank from the outside looking in.
It's quite saddening to see these things going on in Ontario.
In the initial announcement by "frick and frack", one of them mentioned (which JUMPED out at me) that OLG was never intended to have 7,000 employee's.
In today's economy with multi-tiered wages and mutl-tiered fring benefits for emplyee's of most business', it seems that OLG's bottom line is to reduce their payroll/benefits overhead, rather than expand same.
I've not seen this discussed anywhere and am curious as to why it hasn't been addressed?
Don Daniels
Since the minister and his
Since the minister and his mentor, Paul Godfrey, in particular assert that the half of 20% horsemen get from the OLG is a "subsidy" then, using their own definition, is the 28% Caesars gets not a subsidy as well? It seems to me OLG has renegued on the wrong agreement (subsidy)!
I guarantee you not one Ontarian would object to Las Vegas interests NOT getting another penny.
After 10 years of owning casinos, has OLG not yet learnt how to run one on their own, and keep ALL the money in the province?
michael smith The liberals
michael smith
The liberals are blaming the province's financial woes on the greedy doctors, the lazy overpaid teachers and the fat cat parasites in the racing industry, all to hide the fact they were the ones that spent the province into this mess.Paul Godfrey is at the forefront of it all and yet he is arguably the the most influential PC in the province.Can the industry really rely on the PC party to fully support them? The racing community has to become a force unto itself ;it has to develop allies that can be trusted, to launch lawsuits where warranted, and to send a clear warning that we will not put up with lies and misinformation from anyone.
@ Greg Parke... I do agree
@ Greg Parke...
I do agree with you, that people outside of this industry need to read this, but FYI - this story has been read by over 4,000 people... not 600.
The question which has to be
The question which has to be put to Paul Godfrey and Dwight Duncan is Has the revenue from the Windsor area gone up or down since the slots were closed at Windsor Raceway?.If the revenue has gone down then the loss of revenue from the cancellation slots at racetracks will leave a big shortfall in Daltons budget,no doubt he will make it up with cuts to health care and education
They certainly prioritised
They certainly prioritised health care - they have just stuck it to the doctors and cut their fees in half which in turn will hurt the taxpayers and the sick. When will the opposition (NDP) litterally get of its backside and vote down the govt which is running out of control. The longer they wait the longer it will take to recover in all walks of life.
In reply to They certainly prioritised by gretzkey
They seem to think that by
They seem to think that by justifying their actions with the statement that we have the highest paid doctors in the country, we will all jump on board with cutting their fees. What they fail to talk about is the quality of health care that we in Ontario have. I have been unfortunate enough, in the past few years, to have made use of several hospitals and specialists. I was fortunate enough to have received excellent treatment every time. The level of skilled doctors, nurses, equipment and facilities was impressive. Will McGuinty destroy all of that too? Seems so. Oh, but I forgot. He's planning to bring doctors in from other countries who will be more than happy to work for less. So tell me again---why are we educating our own young people in the medical field? As the population of baby boomers shifts into the senior years, are we going to be looking at second-class healthcare because McGuinty is too blind and stupid to make sensible decisions? We have lost far too many of our best doctors and researchers to other provinces and the States because of the political crap that they are constantly dealing with. But McGuinty can waste billions on ORNGE, e-Health, Hydro, wind turbines, OLG, etc. This is a list that I found on the internet of his scandalous and wasteful behavior. How long do we let this maniac go on?
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.ca/2011/03/list-of-ontario-liberal…
In definition . Subsidy :
In definition .
Subsidy : asistance granted by a government or financial aid supplied by a government.
Profit sharing : a system which employees receive a share of "net" profits of the business.
Perhaps if this profit sharing arrangement had been struck on the "net" instead of the "gross" this would not be an issue at this time.
In my humble opinion , this is where a possible solution could be.
By calling the revenue
By calling the revenue sharing agreement a "subsidy" is the McGuinty/Duncan way of distorting the true facts. The people of Ontario have been deceived and misled for the past nine years. Why would it change now?
Time has come to get these
Time has come to get these Liberals out of Queens Park. The old retired people are not going to vote for them considering the high hydro, and heating bills. The Liberals do not pass the smell test. The doctors sure are not going to vote in the liberal's favour. Bruce T. Winning
This should be on the front
This should be on the front page of every newspaper in Ontario. Let every citizen read the true story. This is written in plain English that everyone can understand.
I agree with greg parke.its
I agree with greg parke.its time to get this information to the mainstreame media.there should be full page ads in key newspapers across ontario.and yes it is time for some good Contract Lawyers.this is allout war with this government.Today Is The Tommoro We Worried About Yesterday............
This is a wonderful
This is a wonderful description and explanation, short and sweet, of the original agreement.
This would be great if more than 600 people read it.
Put this in all the local papers as a full page ad so the rest of Ontario understands and you might actually get somewhere. Well done.
Greg Parke
They understand 'subsidy'.
They understand 'subsidy'. They're well-educated, for heaven's sake. But they are DESPERATE. And "Desperate times call for desperate measures." Lying, withholding, misrepresenting, disdainful and malicious behavior, ignorant high-handedness. Awful treatment of Ontario people. Crooked. Sickening.
Wow I would have loved to
Wow I would have loved to see the response from Dwight Duncan when Mr Yurek finally put all the subsidy talk in terms you can't dispute.
This fell under the
This fell under the discussion of Orders of the Day, where resuming the debate adjourned on May 1, 2012, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:
Bill 55, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various Acts
While the Budget has passed a confidence vote, Legislature now debates the Budget line by line under Bill 55. If MPPs have cause for concern on budget content, this is the time that it is addressed and debated.
Therefore, no "response" was given by the Minister. It really wouldn't matter at this point anyway because he has been questioned on his decision to end the slots-racetracks agreement and he continues to sell it as a "subsidy." This government is out of touch with the people in Ontario and are motivated politically only for private gain. Watch as this unfolds.
What was the minister's
What was the minister's response?