October the target for racing industry plan release

Thursday, September 19, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The horse racing industry is anxious to see the Ontario government’s plans to stabilize the industry now that Premier and Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne has instructed the Horse Racing Transition Panel to come up with a comprehensive five-year plan.

The plan is to go from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2019, she says in a Sept. 10 letter to the panel. The plan is due out in October.

Brian Tropea, general manager of the Ontario Harness Horse Association, says they’ve told the panel it’s important to have a five-year plan “so we were happy to see that.”

There were indications the government was only prepared to put $180 million over three years toward the industry, but “seeing that extended out to five years is good news.”

The $180 million over three years was transition funding for the industry. The funding was provided after the provincial government cancelled the Slots At Racetracks program in 2011. It provided the industry with $340 million annually. That amount was split equally between the racetrack operators and the horse groups, which used their portion for purse (racing prize) money. The racetrack owners portion was intended for promotion, marketing and to grow the industry.  

Tropea says the plan should include the amount of purse money available, the number of race dates “or how we’re going to grow the industry back to the size comparable to what we have today.” He notes there are indications the government wants to cut the number of race days and the amount of available purse money.

Sue Leslie, president of the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association, says they want the government to clearly spell out how it will integrate horse racing with the Ontario Lottery Corporation’s gaming strategy. “The government and premier have been talking about integration since early this spring and we sit here getting close to October and none of us know what integration means yet.”

The horse racing industry association also wants to know what “lines of income can the industry expect in the upcoming years.” Once they get those answers, industry participants can start making plans for themselves, she says.

In her letter, Wynne says she wants the panel to include advice on how to distribute the proposed minimum 800 race days for the three breeds (quarterhorses, standardbreds and thoroughbreds) by racing category (premier, signature and grassroots) and to identify which tracks should hold the different race categories. She also wants the panel to comment on competitive purse levels and the “stable support required for the breeding sector to maximize the economic benefit to Ontario,” the letter says.

The panel is also asked to recommend a revised governance structure to accomplish the five-year plan, including the role of the Ontario Racing Commission and industry associations, and it has to come up with a specific amount of government funding over the five years needed to achieve a “vibrant, sustainable horse racing industry that is accountable, transparent, customer-focused and of net benefit to the taxpayers of Ontario,” Wynne writes.

“I’ve said all along I want to have a stable industry in the province and I want to know how we’re going to get there so it can be a sustainable industry,” Wynne says in an interview Tuesday. “I’m optimistic we’re going to be able to get there.”

Tropea says historically people have invested in the industry based on the amount of purse money that was available. Purse money and racing opportunities drive the demand for horses so “any decline in either of those things causes a decline in the value of your assets.” If both of them are cut at the same time, “then there’s a significant decline.”

That’s currently happening in Ontario where horses are being relocated to other jurisdictions in North America where they offer more racing opportunities for more purse money, he explains, noting the industry doesn’t see how it can be competitive because states in the United States around Ontario are implementing slots at racetracks programs while the provincial government has ended that same program here.

According to an Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association study posted on its website, since the provincial government ended the slots at racetracks program in 2011 about 9,000 jobs have been lost and 3,000 horse owners have pulled out of the industry. The industry is down nearly $850 million in investment dollars. The job losses have also affected farms. The association’s study says that employment of licensed workers at tracks has dropped 28 per cent since 2011 and for every job lost, 2.5 jobs are lost at the farm level.

Leslie says the losses they’ve documented were as of this spring. But the industry continues to lose jobs and investment. “It’s even worse now than it was then.”

As for criticism of the panel’s costs by Perth Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece, Tropea says he doesn’t know what the going rate is for expertise advice. “From what I understand it’s not out of line with what consultants are paid.”

Pettapiece obtained documents through a Freedom of Information request that showed the three-member panel billed taxpayers $526,649 in compensation and expenses between June 2012 and March 2013.

Leslie also didn’t have a problem with the amount of money the panel has billed. But if the government consulted with industry before cancelling the slots at racetracks program, it wouldn’t have needed to spend that money, she says. Since the government failed to consult with the industry and left it in a mess, “they were going to have to pay somebody to get involved and try and figure it out. I, for one, think the panel have worked very hard.”

Wynne says the three-member panel of John Snobelen, John Wilkinson and Elmer Buchanan has travelled all over Ontario and talked to people involved in the industry. “We wanted their expert opinion,” she says. In addition, this is a big piece of work that’s about reengineering the industry.

The Progressive Conservatives have said they want a viable horse racing industry, she says, yet they don’t “see that it’s important that we have good advice.” BF