A Submission from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath
(A Brief Foreward Note to this submission from NAL – It remains to be seen what Ontario’s Liberal government will now do and whether the passage of this motion will save horse racing track in Fort Erie, Ontario and mean the re-opening of the clot machine casino he slot machine casino operating next to the track. It also remains to be seen how many Ontario residents want to go there – that is back to the horse track and slot machines.)
Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath
Queen’s Park, November 20th, 2013 – New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath showed leadership in the Legislature this November 20th for horse racing communities across the province. She brought forward an Opposition Day motion calling on the government to halt its failed OLG modernization plan and to save horse racing jobs in rural Ontario by reinstating a fully accountable slots-at-racetracks program.
The NDP motion passed.
“The Liberals have made a mess of OLG modernization plans which were introduced without any consultation and have devastated communities across Ontario. Their plan isn’t working and now it’s time for the government to listen,” said Horwath.
Horwath says the government’s cancellation of the SARP program has more to with pushing casino development on urban centres than it does with making horse racing sustainable.
“Kathleen Wynne’s OLG modernization plan is hurting horse racing families across rural Ontario. A lot of damage has already been done but it’s not too late to bring back a re-vamped, transparent, and fully accountable SARP program,” said Horwath.
When the results of the vote were announced Horwath said that it’s now up to the Premier to stop ignoring the needs of horse people and to respect the will of the majority of the Legislature.
“This vote is a wake-up call for Premier’s Wynne. Horse people have called on the government to restore the SARP program and the majority of this Legislature agrees,” said Horwath. “Liberals need to rethink their plan to put horse people out of business by barging ahead with casino developments in unwilling municipalities.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
The Fort Erie Motor Sports Complex has broken ground and within two years up to 100,000 visitors will descend on Fort Erie, many from the United States, having a viable Horse Race Track with a combined slot area will induce these visitors to spend money there, as an alternative to going to Niagara Falls or Buffalo to play their passions. These two venues will complement each other. The Dalton Mc.Guinty decision to close the slots, in my opinion was a dumb move, their reasoning was that revenues were down, Hello! even Las Vegas was down, we were in the midst of the worst recession in 70 years. Dalton made things worse for everybody by his slash and burn tactics, destroying over 60,000 jobs in a job spiral that was in a crisis mode, was sheer lunacy,.hundreds of horses , killed, farmers with no place to sell their hay, I have never seen such stupidity ever by Government.
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slots yes, gambling flutters – go ahead ….just leave the animals out of the equation!
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Hopefully it happens and the people who lost their jobs after working 13yrs there get informed of job availability first . It is only fair to them because if it was not for the governments mistake they would still have their jobs . Time for the government to make it right with them first .
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THIS WOULD BE GOOD FOR EVERYONE BRING BACK ALL THE SLOTS THAT WERE SHUT BECAUSE SOMEONE DID NOT THINK BEFORE HE LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE
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