Former premier ended subsidy in 2012
The horse racing industry in Ontario, Canada, will get about $100 million each year from the government to help the struggling industry, reports CTV News. But the last-minute save may not work, says horse trainer Linda Yake. “Probably five years ago, we were racing seven horses and training nine or 10. Today, we have two in training,” Yake said.
In 2012, the government pulled the Slots at Racetrack Program, which took $345 million from the tracks and put thousands of people out of work.
“Now that the industry has been dismantled, it’s like burning down a building and saying you’ll rebuild it. It takes much less time to burn down the building than it does to rebuild it,” Yake said. “It’s good to see that there’s some movement in that respect, because originally we were told we would get nothing and deserved nothing.”
According to the Hamilton Spectator, Premier Kathleen Wynne is attempting to “undo the handiwork of her controversial predecessor, Dalton McGuinty,” who pulled the plug on the slots subsidy. Wynne actually increased support to the industry to $500 million over five years, up from the $400 million she promised last October.
“For every dollar invested, we believe that will be returned to the treasury through the revenue that’s generated,” a senior government told the Spectator.
Wynne said it “absolutely is responsible” to save horse-racing, despite the province’s $11.7-billion budget deficit.
