HEATHER BOA Bullet News CLINTON – Mayors from host municipalities of slots facilties at raceways are banding together in the hopes of preserving the horse racing industry in Ontario.
After a meeting yesterday morning in Milton of all mayors in municipalities that host slots, charity casinos and for-profit casinos in the province, the mayors of rural municipalities in which slots facilities and racetracks operate in the same location formed a splinter group to represent the more narrow interests of keeping a sustainable industry that goes hand-in-hand with agriculture.
“We tried to get a strategy among the mayors but everybody’s situation is a little different,” said Jim Ginn, who is the mayor of the Municipality of Central Huron, which is home to Clinton Racetrack Slots. It opened its doors in 2000 in a building built and operated by Clinton Raceway, now employing 92 people in 2011 and operating more than 100 slot machines. Clinton Raceway operates a half-mile track, stabling and paddocks, with about 20 race days through the summer months. The raceway, which has operated for 42 years, employs 70 people at the height of racing season, and has 32 horse people.
While the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced $50-million to help horse people make the transition from racing to other jobs, the new mayors group will take a different tack and try to sort out how to sustain the industry. Led by Randy Hope, who is mayor of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, which hosts Dresden Racetrack Slots, it will seek an audience with representatives from OMAFRA, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation.
In March, the Liberals announced an end to the slots-at-race-track program as part of the 2012 budget, which was passed into law on Wednesday.
Transitional funding was one of the concessions the opposition New Democrats wrestled from the Liberals in exchange for not voting against the budget and thereby keeping the minority government alive.
An expert panel has been appointed by the province to oversee the $50-million transition fund. The panel’s membership is composed of three former cabinet ministers: Elmer Buchanan, John Snobelen and John Wilkinson.
An afternoon meeting between the mayors and OLG representatives has left Ginn confident that the status quo will be maintained from the municipality’s perspective.
“ Every time I meet with them, I feel more and more confident that the Slots will stay where they are and that our revenues will stay the same,” he said.
“I’d be very surprised if the facility moved anywhere.”
In 2001, which was the first full year of operations, the Municipality of Central Huron received almost $444,000 from slot revenue. That number has fluctuated in an upward trend and the municipality received $641,000 from the Slots in 2011.
~ with files from John Robbins, Bullet News Niagara
