Party Platforms For Racing: PCs

Two weeks ago, Standardbred Canada sent a list of questions to Ontario's three main party leaders. Those questions were designed to give each party the chance to directly address the province's horse racing industry after two-plus years of uncertainty.

Trot Insider will be posting the responses received from each party leading up to the June 12 election.

The first party to respond to the questions sent was The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

Questions for Ontario's Leadership Candidates

1. If your party is in power, what are your specific commitments to the horse racing and breeding industry, across all of Ontario?

2. Mentioning as many specifics as possible, how do you plan to integrate the OLG and the horse racing industry?

3. If elected, how quickly will you execute against your commitments from questions 1 and 2.

4. After two years of upheaval and uncertainty, why should horse racing's participants and stakeholders vote for you?‎

Response From The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

May 31, 2014

Mr. Jeff Porchak
Standardbred Canada
2150 Meadowvale Blvd.
Mississauga, ON L5N 6R6

Dear Mr. Porchak:

Thank you very much for your letter. We appreciate the opportunity to listen to your priorities for Ontario. We share your commitment to Ontario’s future and believe that with more and better jobs, we can do what’s necessary to bring about the change Ontario needs.

I’m excited about our Million Jobs Plan—a plan to bring jobs back to Ontario, stop overspending, balance the budget and keep our debt from growing. Our plan relies on the notion that government should be smaller, but what it does, it does better. Our priorities for this election can be found at www.millionjobsplan.com

We need to face our challenges honestly and compassionately. It won’t be easy, but it can be done and it will be worth it. I know we can build a previously unimagined Ontario, but it’s going to take some courage and a willingness to challenge the failed status quo.

That’s what our Ontario PC Million Jobs Plan delivers. We are asking government to tighten its belt, the way everyday Ontarians have, so that one million men and women out of work will have a shot at solid, good-paying jobs.

We’ve got a job to do. It’s time to get Ontario working better.

Sincerely,
Tim Hudak
Leader, Ontario PC Party

ONTARIO PC PLAN FOR HORSE RACING JOBS

• All Ontarians want a better, stronger Ontario – with more jobs and opportunity than we have now. We can achieve that if we make the right choices today, starting with a credible plan for Ontario’s economy.

• A robust horse racing industry is an essential component of Ontario’s rural economy. It employs 60,000 men and women, giving them work they love, and helps to sustain towns and rural communities across the province.

• The Liberal government pulled the plug on a successful slots at racetracks program in favour of building 29 new casinos across the province. This ill-considered decision was made without any plan to transition the industry to sustainability. It devastated the horse racing industry, putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk.

• The Liberal government’s new approach – as recommended by its Horse Racing Transition Panel – amounts to nothing more than a new government horse bureaucracy, where the industry will be left begging cap-in-hand for grants every year.

• This will mean more government jobs, fewer jobs in the horse racing industry, and fewer spinoff benefits in broader rural communities. It will lead to the inevitable decline of the sector and the closure of racetracks.

The Ontario PC plan

• The Ontario PCs have put forward a plan to strengthen partnerships with the job-creating horse racing industry, not tear them apart. It’s what rural Ontario, the horse racing industry and thousands of dedicated workers deserve. The core elements are:

1. Put an immediate and permanent end to the Liberals’ so-called “modernization plan” that would close down racetrack slots in favour of building 29 new casinos in locations yet to be determined.

2. Re-establish, but fix, a slots at racetracks program that will be transparent, accountable and affordable to the taxpayer. Look to best practices in U.S. jurisdictions like New York and Pennsylvania as models.

3. Form public-private partnerships with businesses that know how to run slots and other games to increase the overall revenue that can be shared with the horse racing industry and taxpayers.

4. Build off of what is already working and successful. New gaming operations – like table games and sports betting – should go to racetracks, as opposed to building 29 new casinos.

5. Enforce strong accountability and transparency mechanisms around how the revenue is used, as recommended in the 2008 Sadinsky report.

• For more information or to provide your feedback, please contact Ontario PC Critic Randy Pettapiece, MPP at [email protected] | (416) 325-3400