Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton was quick to respond to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food announcement on Monday, May 13 in regard to integrating the Ontario horse racing industry into the province's gaming modernization plan. “After causing complete and total chaos throughout the industry and throughout rural Ontario, it has taken 14 months for the Premier to accept our calls and begin to rebuild Ontario’s horse racing industry," McNaughton said.
News of the announcement was first broken Monday morning courtesy of an article by The Globe and Mail.
The Globe report was followed up by an official announcement from OMAFRA early in the afternoon.
“It is great that Kathleen Wynne has finally shown a slight glimmer of recognition that her government has caused a disaster in Ontario’s horse racing industry and for the 60,000 jobs associated with it," said McNaughton. "Too bad it took her 14 long months to realize what we’ve been saying all along."
The contents of McNaughton's release appear below.
McGuinty-Wynne Liberals Scramble to Undo Damage Done to Ontario’s Horse Racing Industry
With today’s report that Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne will abdicate her responsibility as Agriculture Minister and will instead resurrect a panel of former cabinet ministers, Ontario PC MPP Monte McNaughton is happy that Wynne agrees with the Ontario PC Party and (once again) wants to make horse racing an integral part of Ontario’s gaming plans.
“The McGuinty-Wynne Liberals caused this problem by suddenly cancelling the successful slots at racetrack partnership without warning and without consultation. With 60,000 jobs at risk, Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Party have long called for horse racing to remain an integral part of Ontario’s gaming strategy,” said McNaughton. “After causing complete and total chaos throughout the industry and throughout rural Ontario, it has taken 14 months for the Premier to accept our calls and begin to rebuild Ontario’s horse racing industry. The Liberal plan to push aside rural Ontario families and these 60,000 jobs in favour of 29 new international casinos is short-sighted and wrong.”
In March 2012, Ontario’s horse racing industry was thrown into chaos when the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals decided to cancel the successful slots at racetrack program (SARP). To help stem the political backlash resulting from this decision, the Liberals appointed a panel of three former cabinet ministers. The panel submitted an interim report in August 2012 and a final report in October 2012.
“It is great that Kathleen Wynne has finally shown a slight glimmer of recognition that her government has caused a disaster in Ontario’s horse racing industry and for the 60,000 jobs associated with it. Too bad it took her 14 long months to realize what we’ve been saying all along,” said McNaughton. “While the Liberal government has made a series of deliberate decisions to reduce the size of Ontario’s successful horse racing industry, the third-party NDP has supported and propped-up the Liberals every step of the way. This is just another file that has been badly mismanaged by the McGuinty-Wynne-Horwath Liberals.”
Tim Hudak and the Ontario PCs are the only party to have called for the horse racing industry and the 60,000 jobs associated to be part of Ontario’s gaming strategy. The PCs have released a series of 12 ‘Paths to Prosperity’ white papers including, An Agenda for Growth and Respect for Rural Ontario. To read the Paths to Prosperity papers, please visit: www.OntarioPC.com/paths.
All of the parties would
All of the parties would would have handled this similarly ..
Liberals had a plan..( not a very good one)
PCs think they have a plan some days
The NDP have a Liberal plan
The Liberals is letting the industry adjust itself, many will leave, the business because of the financial losses.
Others will improve their stock to compete. Breeding is down to match the numbers of horses that will be needed
Small tracks will recognize that even giving out $35,000 a card and only bring in $10,000 still doesn't make economic sense, and will close..The racing community will shrink, qualifying times will drop by 3-5 seconds at remaining tracks and Internet betting will be what is left. This is happening all over the world...42% last Christmas made purchases from the Internet ....gone will be the days of owners hanging out at the barns on weekends and watching their stock train, grabbing coffee and donuts for the trainers and grooms....call it evolution or progress, it's going to continue and to survive you need to be the best, to survive
Good luck to all
SARP is gone we need to face
SARP is gone we need to face that, will Monte's white pages put racing back to the SARP levels - answer not likely but can we afford more shameless promises from Kathleen Wynne designed only to make her Liberals look like the savours who road in on a white horse, remember she works for the Liberal Party not the Ontario people she is a working member of the McGuinty - Dalton gang who robbed the Ontario people in so many ways we have all forgotten a lot of them. Monte use up some favours get as many NDP to vote down the budget as possible and quickly put racing back on it's feet or end up looking just like Wynne.
Darryl is right. Wynne is
Darryl is right. Wynne is closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. McGuinty and Duncan ended the SARP which, in turn, precipitated the decline in breeding, purchasing, racing. So now, with an election in the forseeable future, she wants to help us out??? Suddenly, she is concerned about us and the horse racing industry?? Pathetic governing.
Another election ploy???
Another election ploy??? Seems to me the Liberals praised the SAR program as one of it's most financially successful partnerships just prior to the last election, then shortly after winning a minority, pulled the plug. This gesture of good will by Wynne smells the same as the "right words" needed just prior to election to help win! Move the gas plants???? Oh yes, and lets keep paying this "panel" for another year or so to sucker the Horse race participants into supporting us one more time! Fool me once.... shame on you! Fool me twice.... shame on ME!
Damage already done and the
Damage already done and the little guys like me are at an end. You cannot survive and pay the bills with what the purses are being set at now at the B tracks, not to mention the difficulty of getting in to race only once or twice a month.
In reply to Damage already done and the by dnew62
Tim Hudak has publicly stated
Tim Hudak has publicly stated that the PCs believe strongly in privatization. New owners are not going to buy racetrack slot sites if they are forced to prop up a flailing harness racing industry.
In reply to Tim Hudak has publicly stated by RJ
Robert, Do you not think that
Robert,
Do you not think that the modernization plan the OLG put forth is not a privatization plan by giving Ontario gaming to US casinos ?
You need not look too far to see current owners of tracks NOT wanting to race but they all want to keep the casinos.
Our industry will be better off once the casinos leave track premises. We might only have 4 or 5 tracks left but at least these owners will want to race and improve the bottom line by working for it.
In reply to Robert, Do you not think that by duke77
Norm, I think that any
Norm, I think that any privatization of the Ontario gaming industry was not needed and it was only done to further Team Godfrey`s hidden agenda.
No one was complaining about the profitable 1.3 billion dollar gaming monopoly the Ontario government possessed.
SARP should be reinstated and renegotiated which would still allow the harness racing industry to thrive and grow.
The Liberals messed with the OLG, a successful crown corporation, to bail out the party`s gross negligence of tax-payer dollars with their ORNGE, Gas plant billion dollar scandals.
Fact is, SARP did not need to be terminated and needs to be reinstated immediately.
In reply to Norm, I think that any by RJ
Totally agree with you
Totally agree with you Robert.