"Anyone familiar with the horse farms of Durham Riding can see first-hand how the (slots-at-racetracks) partnership revenue is spent by the horse racing community. The money certainly doesn’t go to massive CEO salaries, high-priced consultants or convoluted contracts to buy air ambulances

. When the racing industry spends its share of the provincial partnership money, the money goes to places where you can see it."

The above statement is an excerpt from a recent open letter by Durham MPP John O'Toole in support of the Ontario horse-racing industry and the province's widely-heralded slots-at-racetracks program.

O'Toole has opted to side with the racing industry in light of the Ontario Liberal Government's multiple public statements against the program, which, if you stick to the numbers and not the rhetoric, is a massive and integral economic workhorse for the province.

"Horse racing builds a thriving business cycle that creates jobs, supports entrepreneurs, gives opportunities for investment and provides tax revenues for government. And don’t forget that $1.1 billion the Ontario government gets in revenues from slots at the racetracks," O'Toole wrote. "The slots (along with casinos and lotteries) contribute $1.5 billion for hospitals, $120 million for the Ontario Trillium Foundation, $41 million for problem gambling and related programs, $10 million for amateur sports, and $69 million for general government priorities (you can read all about it on page 234 of Ontario’s 2011 budget)."

To read O'Toole's letter, click here.

For Trot Insider's complete coverage regarding the fallout and uproar in response to the Ontario Liberals' Drummond Report, click here.