Province mum on racetrack funding details
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
by SUSAN MANN
The Ontario government is spending $180 million over three years in transition funding for the province’s horse racing industry after it ended the slots at the tracks revenue sharing agreement earlier this year.
But provincial officials remain tight-lipped about the financial details of individual agreements.
In March, the ministry had said it would not be appropriate to release funding information at that point because negotiations with some tracks were still ongoing.
Now, the transition funding negotiations are substantially complete. But they can’t be released because they involve third parties, Gabrielle Gallant, spokesperson for Premier and Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne, says by email.
The government has agreements for funding with 12 tracks: Woodbine, Mohawk, Western Fair, Clinton, Hanover, Grand River, Flamboro, Georgian Downs, Fort Erie, Kawartha, Sudbury and Hiawatha.
Two others will race without striking funding agreements – in Dresden and Rideau Carleton -- and one track, in Ajax, is operating with funds from the Quarterhorse Program. The Ontario Racing Commission has issued a 2013 racing calendar with race dates for the 15 tracks.
Gallant says “our government has a plan guided by the report of the Horse Racing Industry Transition Panel for a strong, sustainable path forward for Ontario’s horse racing industry.”
In other news, the province has asked the panel to complete a long-term plan to implement the recommendations from its final report. The proposal will include plans to:
- Modernize the governance and regulations of the horse racing industry.
- Grow the fan base and provide more wagering options.
- Provide ongoing government support.
- Ensure animal welfare.
The draft plan for consultation is due in June while the final report is due by October. The panel will work with industry partners, the Ontario Ministry of Finance and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation to integrate horse racing with the province’s gaming strategy and offer new gaming products to generate additional revenue, the government’s May 13 press release says. BF
Update Thursday May 16, 2013
by SUSAN MANN
The provincial government isn’t making public the amount each of the 12 tracks that received transition funding is getting.
Horse Racing Industry Transition Panel member John Snobelen says “these are commercial agreements and while some tracks would be fine with that release some would not so we have taken the approach that we would just put the aggregate number up but not the individual numbers.”
At the panel’s suggestion, the Ontario Finance Ministry retained Deloitte’s to work with each track and that “gave us what is a template for the costs of running various divisions of racing, such as thoroughbred versus standardbred and the various levels of standardbred racing across the province.” The variables for each track, such as when they race, were taken into account too.
“We laid that template over all those tracks and came up with a funding formula,” he says. “They’re very similar to each other but there are some differences based on what time of year they race and on the specific conditions of that local track.”
The tracks all got different amounts of funding, he says.
Ajax is operating using funds from the quarterhorse program. Snobelen says the quarterhorse owners and breeders have a “substantial fund that they put aside from the slots at racetracks program so transition funding wasn’t necessary for them, at least not this year.”
Dresden and Rideau Carleton had a sufficient amount of purse money available to them left over from the previous slots at racetracks program to operate without transition funding this year, he explains.
Tracks that didn’t get transition funding this year can apply to get it another year, he says. During the next few weeks, the panel will be talking to tracks about funding for next year. BF