With the province and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation concentrating on a slate of new casinos, the Slots at Racetrack Program (SARP) came to an end March 31. For the horseracing industry that had been enjoying 10 per cent of the slots revenue, the huge financial loss is a pressing issue even if the government isn’t acknowledging the fact.
For the opposition NDP, however, the issue was front and centre Tuesday at a discussion with horseracing industry professionals in St. Jacobs.
“The fact that SARP was successful, by all standards and metrics, made it a target,” said Essex MPP Taras Natyashak, who with newly-elected Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife, led the discussion at the St. Jacobs Marriot Courtyard.
“If we follow the money, the province is currently embarked on what is clearly uninhibited privatization of casinos in the province. … What I can imagine is if MGM or Caesar’s or Donald Trump were looking into this potential business proposal or opportunity … you would want to ensure you have the opportunity to capitalize on as much market share as you can.”
He added, “expansion of casinos around the province was going to cut into your market share. That’s why SARP said, ‘hey, we gotta buffer this.’”
With the removal of SARP depriving the horseracing industry of slot revenues, the professionals at Tuesday’s meeting said they were already feeling intense repercussions.
“We are Ontario and Canada’s largest breeding farm, and we’re on the verge of, ‘Do we continue?’” said Walter Parkinson, president of the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association. “We’re fortunate that we have a large land-base. A lot of people are just working with their horses as their assets. They’re already mortgaged, and they’re going to be done.”
Natyshak called for four principles to be applied to Ontario’s gaming policy, which he plans to introduce at Queen’s Park: that the OLG’s gaming strategy transformation be suspended until after the 2014 elections; that a panel of Liberal, Conservative, and NDP representatives hear from stakeholders and draft spending limits; that unclaimed funds from racetrack closures be made available to local tracks; and that changes to SARP be frozen.
It was this last point that dominated Tuesday’s discussion, with the participants expressing disapproval of what many of them saw as a carelessness towards the horse-racing and breeding industries.
“What has developed is a cynicism of politics,” said Bill O’Donnell, president of the Central Ontario Standardbred Association. “We always suspect that politicians don’t take care of our best interests.”
He added, “I would say that anybody that’s in the Ontario horseracing industry will probably never, ever, ever vote Liberal ever again.
During the discussion Natyashak positioned the NDPs as an ideological counterpoint to the Liberals and Conservatives.
“We believe that if gaming is going to be operated in the province of Ontario, it should be strictly regulated by the province … and that good, real jobs should take priority. And the real jobs that you guys do – mucking the stalls, shoeing the horses, providing veterinary care – those are real, tangible jobs for a real economy.”
Some of the participants expressed disappointment that the NDP had not fought hard enough for the horseracing industry during the 2012 budget crisis, moving to save the Liberals in order to prevent an election.
“We tried, and the Libs wouldn’t budge on it,” said Natyashak. “We did not force an election, because we were six months outside of the last election. Every party, including the Liberals and Conservatives, fully know that they would have been punished for bringing down a government six months after.
“Public consciousness and sentiment at that time I’d say would have been overwhelmingly against the horseracing industry … If I went and knocked on doors and Mrs. Smith said, ‘Why are we here again? We were here six months ago,’ chances are she would say, ‘What are you trying to do that for?’”
Added Fife, “We’ve learned from that experience, because that was a messy budget negotiation.”
