Horse industry panel praised
Thursday, September 13, 2012
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
A George Morris paper is praising the efforts of a three-member panel charged with developing recommendations to help Ontario’s horse industry adjust to the loss of provincial funding. Written by the Guelph think-tank’s executive director Bob Sequin and released Tuesday, the paper says the panel’s approach and interim report is an “excellent example of improved public policy decision-making.”
It may not have resolved the problem but the interim report has provided both industry and government fodder that allows them to “step away from the heated debates, refocus on key transitions issues and work towards to a better solution for all parties,” Seguin writes, noting that the panel and its report have “moved the policy yardsticks.”
In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Seguin says there was a lot of concern within the Ontario racing industry that the panel would simply rubber stamp the provincial government’s decision to quash its Slots at the Racetracks program. The 14-year partnership between Ontario Lottery and Gaming and racetracks allowed industry and the municipalities that hosted the tracks to reap big bucks from slot machines. Agriculture Minister Ted McMeekin announced a $50 million industry transition fund in June, as well as the formation of the panel to make recommendations on the issue. The panel consists of Elmer Buchanan, John Snobelen and John Wilkinson, all former provincial government cabinet ministers of different political stripes.
“The issue is very tough,” says Seguin. “There needed to be some change. The government was looking for funding, a government report identified this is a possible place to look for it. They decided to move very aggressively. The industry was fighting back pretty harshly, there seemed to be no room to find movement or compromise.” Through consultation and analysis, the panel realized access to government funding wasn’t the only factor challenging the industry’s future, he says. How it competes in the entertainment and gaming markets are other long-term issues. The way the funding was previously delivered allowed the industry to evade them.
A potential solution, the panel suggests, includes maintaining some public funding but with clear guidelines and reporting requirements.
The handling of the interim report offers an important reminder to the broader industry, Seguin concludes in his paper. Markets, technology, competition and public expectations are constantly changing. To assume that in such an environment public policy programming “will remain intact and untouched is a high risk proposition.” The belief “that certain bedrock foundations for the sector are immune to change is not realistic or appropriate.”
David Sparling, Agri-Food Innovation and Regulation chair at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, notes there is a key question that the interim report fails to address: What motivated the province to pull funding? Locating slots at racetracks “actually makes some sense,” he says. It provides employment in rural regions. Many of the tracks are located in areas that would not compete with casinos — which are “completely different venues” — for customers.
Sparling says he would also like to have seen more information about how this issue is being handled in other parts of the world.
The panel’s final report is due at the end of September. BF