Ontario horse farmers and their supporters will rally at Queen’s Park Wednesday to ask the government not to scrap an agreement between the province, race track operators and horsemen on the distribution of slot revenues.
The group says suggested changes would be unfair because horse farmers’ survival depends on their portion of the slot revenues.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has recently signalled the Ontario horse racing industry’s $345-million annual share of slot machine revenues could be withdrawn by the cash-strapped government.
The legislature began sitting again Tuesday after a long Christmas break and less than a week after the Drummond report outlined a list of 362 austerity recommendations the province must adopt to balance the budget by 2018.
Premier Dalton McGuinty mentioned the horse racing industry Tuesday.
“We will not make thoughtless, reckless, across-the-board cuts,” he said. “If we must choose between horse racing and home care, we’re going to choose home care.”
