December 20, 2013
Kathleen Wynne
Minister of Agriculture and Food
Office of the Minister
77 Grenville Street, 11th Floor
Toronto, ON M7A 183

Dear Ms. Wynne:

Since I have been on vacation I must apologize for not having responded to the matters raised in your personal letter to me of December 3, 2013 more promptly.

The up-tempo response and tone of your December letter together with your pleasant visits with standardbred horsemen and breeders throughout rural Ontario would appear to demonstrate your very genuine enthusiasm for horseracing.

Furthermore, you seem to have a strong feeling that you and your staff and the members of your Panel are making the best out of this very tragic situation (created entirely by your Liberal Party predecessors Messrs. Duncan, Godfrey and Tanenbaum) that is now being faced by Ontario's standardbred horsemen. My impression that you as Premier feel that "all is well" in Ontario horseracing, seems to be consistently revealed to us in your various public speeches and comments.

Unfortunately, your impression that "all is well" is absolutely incorrect!

Part of the problem is that your Panel members did not have any prior expertise or understanding of the North American horseracing business to rely upon when they were appointed as "experts" by Mr. McGuinty. Trying to govern without this essential background (normally traditional in Government - appointed committees of this nature) the current Panel members have tragically failed in all their efforts to manage and modernize the Ontario horseracing industry. Both the Ontario racing and breeding industries now face an extreme financial crisis which was absolutely avoidable without the intervention of your Panel.

Your Panel, without even a minimal knowledge of the task ahead of them when they were appointed, did not choose to directly involve world recognized experts in the horseracing and gambling industries who reside in Ontario like Dr. Stanley Sadinsky (who co-authored the previous major report on horseracing for the Liberal Party) or Dr. J. Glen Brown, former manager of Armstrong Farm in Brampton, by far the largest horse farm in Canada and one of the draftsmen of the Ontario Sires Stake program and a colleague of Dr. Sadinsky as a member of the Ontario Racing Commission for many years.

In my two brief meetings with the Panel I must regret to advise that my colleagues and I (also with many years of horse racing experience and trying to be helpful) were accorded very little respect. Our warnings to the Panel were completely unheeded.

Your Panel members fail to understand that horseracing's future in Ontario, as elsewhere in North America, has always been and will continue to be 100% dependent upon having A) adequate racing dates and B) a competitive purse structure. Currently, Ontario standardbred racing offers neither A) or B) and is slipping fast into history without anything positive having happened here in almost two years. No announcements with the OLG have been made. We are running out of time. We did nothing to deserve this fate.

Ontario standardbred purses have fallen from $160 million in 2012 (pre-cancellation of SARP) to $90 million in 2013 to a projected $65 million in 2014! We obviously cannot compete with our American competitors at these levels.

Five year "partnerships" blue skied by the Ontario Government, but without a proper purse component, have no meaning or relevance to anyone!

When you persistently speak of your Government's contributions to horseracing's revenues you seem to insist on adding together ancient tax breaks made to the betting public to rental payments made to racetrack operators (that may offer races on a sporadic and infrequent basis or may not race at all). This double counting and apples plus oranges exercise has nothing to do with a proper calculation of total purses to be offered in Ontario. The real and accurate number for 2014 is $65 million down from $160 million and that number is obviously not acceptable.

By generously providing its racetracks as the original sites for the slot machine bonanza Ontario's horsemen, breeders and tradespeople have now, with the cancellation of SARP, been cheated out of their rightful interest in their original partnership with Government and the OLG. This financial involvement by horsemen and breeders must be restored.

Jobs in racing are totally dependent only upon racing dates and purses. On the standardbred side over 50% of the jobs are already gone and immense financial and personal pain is being suffered at Christmas time by those who are most vulnerable.

The experiment by your predecessors in the Liberal Party's hierarchy to fix what was not broken by cancelling the SARP program clearly ranks among their many previous bad decisions as perhaps their most vindictive. You alone now have the opportunity to redress this wrong.

Furthermore, the cancellation of SARP has had an equally devastating effect on the Ontario Treasury. When SARP was cancelled some tracks like Windsor were closed permanently and most others lost days and reputation. All synergies developed between racing and slots evaporated and many customers regretted the loss of variety and choice in betting opportunities.

I am therefore eagerly awaiting the 2012-2013 Ontario Lottery Corporation Annual Report. Rumours persist that the direct annual revenue loss to the Ontario Government caused entirely by the cancellation of the SARP will exceed two hundred million dollars for 2013! Surely you should try to address this completely unnecessary revenue loss to Treasury by reintegrating a vibrant horse racing product with your slot operations.

I am also eagerly awaiting the Auditor General's report on racing, as are Ontario voters and Ontario's horsemen and breeders.

Three conclusions are inescapable:

1. By not insisting upon the normal 10% dedication for purses, as advocated so strongly by Dr. Sadinsky in his report to your Liberal Government, the Panel completely lost credibility with horsemen and breeders;

2. You have not created a financial structure for racetracks under which they are compensated for hosting racing in a modern environment. As it stands now racetracks have no interest or incentive in conducting races. Using Georgian Downs, the beautiful modern track as an example, they have only agreed to race a mere 25 days in 2014 while they await further developments from the OLG! This is patently ridiculous; and

3. The Conservative Party of Ontario and the New Democrat Party both voted unconditionally and unanimously at Queen's Park to restore the Slots At Racetracks Program. Why have you and your Party continued to deny the will of the people on this fundamental and important issue?

I would welcome an opportunity to discuss these matters with you and your advisors.

Yours very truly,
Robert B. Burgess, Q.C.

The views presented in Trot Blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Standardbred Canada.