Henry Aubin of the Montreal Gazette has penned an interesting opinion column in today's edition regarding the proposed bailout plan for Attractions Hippiques
.
A excerpt of Aubin's piece appears below in italics.
Enter Quebec's Plan B. This calls for abandoning live races but allowing the company to build a new gambling complex next to the soon-to-be-demolished Hippodrome. The complex would house 300 VLTs owned by Loto-Québec, up from the 200 now at the Hippodrome. The complex would also offer off-track betting.
The proposal is, as Le Devoir reported, excessively generous to the company. It would pocket 22 per cent of VLT revenue, an estimated $445 million annually. (The province would get the balance.) Quebec could reimburse the company for the tax on pari-mutuel betting for up to 25 years, good for a total of $325 million. The company's costs, meanwhile, would decline: Instead of paying $17 million in racetrack purses to the languishing racing industry, as Plan A had called for, it would give it just $3 million. The plan could bring a preposterous $700 million to $1 billion to Attractions Hippiques, owned by Liberal Senator Paul Massicotte, over the 25-year period.
Meanwhile, Quebec's horse-racing industry would be shut out of the Montreal metropolitan area, its keystone market. Two days ago, mindful of the industry's prediction that it would perish (along with its several thousand jobs), the government has hinted it might make the terms less lopsided.
To read the column in its entirety, click here.
(With files from the Montreal Gazette)