“Horse racing in a lot of these small communities, such as Dresden, Windsor, London, Fort Erie and Ajax, will be finished,” said OHRIA’s president Sue Leslie following Monday’s alarming announcement by Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan that radical changes could be made to the province’s horse racing industry
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“And then how will those townships around these tracks survive if all those workers are gone? Who will be in their restaurants, at the gas stations, in their Wal-Marts?” added Leslie in a report in Tuesday’s Toronto Star. “We are confused. Why would a successful revenue-sharing program such as this be a place for cost-cutting? It has made very large amounts of money for the government.”
Duncan labeled the racing industry’s annual share of slot revenue as a “subsidy” on Monday when he addressed the Economic Club of Canada, and that added more fuel to the fire.
“This really ticks us off,” said Leslie. “It is not a subsidy. This revenue-sharing program has had good results for all three parties. It is a self-sustaining, labour-intensive industry that employs 60,000 people in jobs such as feed mills, veterinarians, tack shops, blacksmiths and farmers all over.”
For each dollar wagered on the slots, the government receives 75 per cent, with 10 per cent going to the horse industry for wages, employment and horses, and 10 per cent to the racetrack for refurbishments and renovations. Five per cent goes to the municipality.
“Over the last decade, annual expenditures by the horse racing industry has increased by 67 per cent, to $2 billion dollars in 2010 from $1.2 billion in 2000,” said Leslie. “Approximately 80 per cent of this expenditure occurs in Ontario’s rural agriculture communities where it provides much-needed economic growth.”
“The horse racing industry has reinvested and reinvigorated the Ontario economy,” she said. “Whatever is taken away from it, will be taken away from employment. Our industry must let them know that they would be doing the wrong thing.”
Sue, I don't know if you get
Sue, I don't know if you get the credit for the great billboard but it looks great. We you could do the same for harness racing and have them put up especially in our local communities where there are tracks that would be a tremendous help.
I suggest a fun horse race at all tracks. Have one horse represent Dwight Duncan, maybe one for your local non supportive Liberal, maybe one for the supportive political candidate (have them attend). Call the press. It would be great to have the local people know what the result of the Liberal horse winning would be. It could be fun and make a great statement. I do believe every track should be showing the farm family...who are you...how many generations...
Thanks
Why not implement a 38% tax
Why not implement a 38% tax on Canadian Lottery winnings, similar to what they do in the U.S. Just in the month of February, on Lotto Max, the government could have received back $24,700,000.00 using this taxation method. This seems more feasible than stripping funds away from the horse racing industry!!??
Copy of email sent to
Copy of email sent to Premier, Finance Minister, Opposition leader and local MPP's. In an attempt to catch their attention I titled the email subject ONTARIO AUTO ASSEMBLY PLANT CLOSURES
Dear Minister Duncan:
How would the Provincial government respond if the 10 Auto Assembly plants located in Ontario (Cami, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda and Toyota) all announced they were moving the the United States tomorrow.
What impact would that loss of those 25,000 jobs have? Would devastating even begin to describe it?
The government would be in a state of panic, and the last thing on anyones mind would be the loss of the billions of dollars the Province invested to lure and keep those jobs in Ontario. In fact quite the opposite would be true (is true). Incentives and bailouts would be the order of the day (as they were a couple of years ago).
With this in mind, how can you as the Finance Minister, promote action that would eliminate up to 60,000 jobs in the Province's agricultural sector. How could this possibly help Ontario's financial position?
If the revenue sharing partnership between Ontario racetracks and the OLG is tossed-out, and $345 million is taken from Ontario racing purse pools, more than 50% of the 60,000 jobs would be gone within 6 months. Another 25% would be gone within a year.
One only needs to look at Quebec, Ohio or Michigan to see how the lack of cooperative gaming arrangements can devestate the racing/breeding industry and with it a large sector of the agricultural industry.
On the flip side, a number of U.S. states faced with dwindling employment and tax revenues have recently followed the Ontario model. Similar gaming arrangements have rejuvenated racing/agriculture in Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and Kentucky. Ohio realizing their industry had disintegrated has now passed legislation allowing for similar gaming arrangements, and Illinois is expected to follow suit this year.
These states are not doing this out of any love for horse racing, they are doing it because they need jobs, and they need to kick-started their agricultural sector.
Mr Minister, for the sake of the Racing/Breeding sector; the sake of the Agricultural sector and indeed the sake of Ontario as as whole, I urge you to review ALL sides of the OLG partnership. 60,000 jobs are hanging in the balance.
Sincerely,
Cam McKnight,
We need to hit the local
We need to hit the local newspapers across Ontario to let as many of the people of the province know just what is going on. It might surprise the government to know just how many people will be affected by this proposed, drastic cut to horse racing in Ontario that will affect all of Canada and have far-reaching effects into the USA.