MPPs Home Constituency Week March 12-16

March 12 to March 16 is Constituency Week, meaning that MPPs will be in their home ridings to meet with constituents. All members of the horse racing community in Ontario are being reminded the importance of meeting with your local Minister of Provincial Parliament

.

Let your MPP know the facts about the current slots-at-racetracks program. Let them know that the Ontario horse-racing industry, the second-largest agricultural sub-sector in the province, has a massive ripple effect throughout Ontario's vast rural population. Let them know that you care!

To find out who your MPP is, and to access their complete contact information, please click here.

Come prepared. Come informed!

At the expense of the racing industry, facilities were improved to accommodate slot parlors on behalf of the government --- slot parlors that are in fact competition for an industry that had developed itself over many decades. The agreement, to this day, pours 75% of all slots revenue into Ontario government coffers, gives 5% to the municipalities where these facilities are located, and allots the remaining 20% to the industry. Industry money maintains jobs while providing a solid base in the rural agricultural economy.

60,000 real people... real men and women for whom racing means food on the table and a roof over their heads. Together, we represent the same number of Ontario employees as the province’s entire public sector! A total of $1.5 billion in wages and salaries are sustained annually by total expenditures of the Ontario horse racing and breeding industry.

Ontario's provincial government receives $261 million a year directly from the horse racing industry and its participants... not counting the $1.1 billion which they collect as their share of the slots revenue from parlours at our facilities. The industry as a whole also accounts for $2 billion in annual expenditures... up 67% from 2000.

If the above talking points and MPP contact info is not enough, and you want to send Premier Dalton McGuinty, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, Opposition Leader Tim Hudak or Ontario's NDP Party Leader Andrea Horwath an email containing the positives of the Ontario horse-racing industry, you can do so by utilizing the addresses which are listed below.

WHO CAN I WRITE?

Send your message here to your local MPP:
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do

Or here:
http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/about/contactus/

Or email Premier Dalton McGuinty directly here:
[email protected]

Or Finance Minister Dwight Duncan here:
[email protected]

You may want to CC Tim Hudak, leader of the opposition, here:
[email protected]

Or Andrea Horwath, leader of Ontario's NDP party, here:
[email protected]

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