Page 33 - 13 April 2012

Chelsea Pullen attended one of 11 rallies held at various Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament Offices.
order to pass the budget. If this does not come to pass, there will be a provincial election which may open some doors to hope for the racing industry as both the Conservatives and the NDP have given some support to the “Slots At Racetracks” program. The downside to this is the length of time required for that amount of change in government to take place and whether or not it will be too late for the industry.
Nonetheless, despite repeated public outrage from the industry coming to this point, the government and Ontario Lottery and Gaming have already begun bringing their plans to pass. On the day following the announcement that the “Slots At Racetracks” program would be ending in March 2013, three owners of border tracks (Fort Erie, Windsor and Hiawatha in Sarnia) were given notice that the slots would be folding as of April 30, 2012. The OLG cited decreasing revenues at border track sites (from $800M/year to $100M/year and dwindling) due to cross border competition and their close proximity to other Ontario casinos, as their main reasons. Several other track owners have been give official notice that the site holder agreements, those being the revenue sharing agreements between the track owners and the OLG, will be ending on March 31, 2012. The OLG has gone on record stating that some tracks will continue to house slots, but have not given any indications that anything resembling the previous program will be put in place.
As it stands at this time, racing will continue
as usual for 2012, with a number of stake races
to be offered at both Ajax Downs and Fort Erie Racetrack. For information on the Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario 2012 Stake Program go to qrooi.com. For more information on the fight to save Ontario Racing, go to value4money.ca.
and publicly denouncing claims in favor of the racing industry made by OHRIA. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has publicly questioned OHRIA’s reference to 60,000 jobs saying, “... those numbers are grossly exaggerated.” However two different government studies have recently come to light giving credibility to OHRIA’s esti- mations. Mr. Duncan has also publicly gone on record to say that the money allotted to the horse racing industry could be better spent elsewhere, making it sound as though horse racing takes away from the citizens of the province, rather than helping to support them as OHRIA claims.
OHRIA staged a multi-pronged effort on March 30, scheduling rallies at local constituency
offices of 11 Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament offices. The Ontario Harness Horseman’s Association also organized a rally on March 26, which over 1,500 people attended.
OHRIA’s statement read, “It’s imperative
to our cause that we turn out in force for these events on Friday, so we can influence these politi- cians before the vote on the Ontario Budget. They need to see the faces whose livelihoods they are negating, not only in the horse racing and breeding industry, but within the wide-ranging economic cycle that our business sustains.”
Because the current Liberal government is a minority government, they need votes from the other two parties, Conservatives and NDP in
Chelsea Pullen, Tracey, Belinda Taggart, Shari Lariviere, Laurie Overton, and Barbara Graham showed their support for Ontario horse racing.
SPEEDHORSE, April 13, 2012 31
AROUND THE GLOBE
Rik Hudson
Laurie Overton