Reevin Pearl, of Pearl & Associates, the law firm representing several breeding farms in Quebec, spoke this afternoon to Trot Insider regarding a letter issued to Attractions Hippiques and several governmental agencies and ministers.
Pearl explained that his clients under the organization name 'Association Hippiques Des Reproducteurs Du Quebec,' are seeking an immediate resolution to all causes of the current dispute between various governmental departments in order to allow senator Paul Massicotte to move forward under the obligations and terms of the original agreement signed on August 17, 2006.
"They wrote a very complex agreement but provided for no guarantees by the purchaser to fulfill his duties to keep the industry alive and functioning," said Pearl.
"At this stage, if the agreement is to be honoured in its entirety, the 1,900 VLT machines promised would be generating revenue. We are only comfortable if the races are scheduled and the purses are up. How it gets funded, we don't care. That was the risk of Paul Massicotte. Mr. Massicotte has other sources and he should use them until the program is up and running.
"Between June, 2008 and today there is a total paralysis in the industry. You have the death of an industry in the last 100 days, one that's taken 100 years to build," he said.
Pearl also questions the manner in which the Creditors Arrangement Act was applied to Attractions Hippiques, saying "they don't have a right to collapse a whole industry."