Contact Ontario's Ombudsman

I, too, filed a letter of concern with the Ombudsman and have encouraged other to do so. I havent' received a response as yet. We may be grasping at straws here but desperate situations require desperate measures. Let's hope that Mr. Marin will act upon this and start an investigation. If you haven't done so, please consider filling out the form and sending it to the office of the Ombudsman.

While I don't personally know the people who have posted on here, I see so many advocating for our industry. I am glad to see people take ownership of the situation, spread the word about the issues with accuracy and ACT upon them.

The government panel has approximately 6 more weeks to summerize their recommendations based on their review meetings with members of the industry. Keeping the political pressure on during this time is of utmost importance.

Our industry drives the agricultural service businesses in rural Ontario, which obviously leads to tens of thousands of jobs and econonmic benefit for the municipalities we are located in. We, as horse owners, breeders and trainers are also Business Owners who are employers. This makes for a Stronger Ontario.

Continue to support each other and work together because our industry and the SAR agreement represents one of the best private/public successful relationships government has ever entered into.

I too contacted the Ontario Ombudsman last week via online complaint form, including in my submission, links to several articles on this website. I requested an investigation into the OLG, based on the figures included in the graphs showing revenue from OLG's lotteries. OLG owned casinos & charity casinos compared to Slots-at-Racetracks. I also referenced not only the loss of jobs, but the loss of income to the Gov't, noting there has been no explanation from this Gov't. how they intend to replace the loss of billions of dollars. The only logical explanation would be Program cuts & tax increases. The people of Ontario are being lied to by Duncan, calling the Horsepersons' share of revenue from the Slots-at-Racetracks program a "Subsidy", which is an outright lie. A subsidy implies taxpayer dollars are being given to the Horse Racing industry. This repeated lie is turning Ontario voters who are not aware of the truth, angrily against the horse industry

I received a phone call last Friday from the Ombudsman's office with several questions regarding the effect this decision is having on the livelihood of people in our industry, and was asked why the OLG and Liberal Gov't were doing this. Of course my answer to that question was that we have not been given a truthful answer to that question and is precisely why we would like the Ontario Ombudsman to ask the question and investigate this illogical decision.

Please take the time to file a complaint with the Ombudsman, they are listening, and looking for all the information they can garner.

I know many have filed with the Ombudsman. I sent a very detailed package (172 pages) by courrier last Tuesday. I had 17 co-complainants. I received an email Monday morning that stated: "I confirm our Office's receipt and review of your letter submission. We are currently reviewing the issues that you raised regarding the Slots at Racetracks program and will be responding to you once we have completed our initial review." Let's keep our fingers crossed. The Ornge air ambulance scandal was investigated after only 17 complaints!

I went to a local store yesterday where the owner knows me.

She asked me about the horses.

She had not heard a thing about this in the Media.