Leslie On Auditor General Review

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Published: April 18, 2013 04:00 pm EDT

"It's going to be very difficult from all the facts I have for the Auditor General to be able to support the decision of the McGuinty government."

As the horse racing industry continues to search for answers as to why the government chose to end the successful slots-at-racetracks program in 2012, many look forward to hearing the result of the Auditor General's report on the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s expansion plans and the cancellation of the slots-at-racetracks program. That announcement came last Wednesday, and OHRIA's Sue Leslie commented on where she feels horse racing sits in an interview with Trot Radio's Norm Borg.

"We're confident there were no economic studies done, there was no cost evaluation studies done, there was no economic evaluation done on what horse racing and breeding brings to Ontario," said Leslie. "We believe this was just an arbitrary decision encouraged by the OLG, who wanted 100 per cent of the gaming dollars in the province and it was done without any regard to the effect on individual citizens, on the horse racing industry, or on the economics of Ontario."

When asked what the result will be if the Auditor General does find the government did not perform due diligence or made one-off deals in the OLG modernization announcement from March 2012, Leslie hoped that Premier Kathleen Wynne would take "immediate action" and pause the OLG modernization strategy.

While this investigation by the Auditor General does not allow for direct investigation into possible conflicts of interest, Leslie notes that an amendment to this motion has been brought forth and was not voted in as the vote ended in a tie. Leslie feels that in the event that the amendment doesn't pass, there's a possibility that these perceived conflicts could surface on their own.

"I would encourage anyone in the industry that has information that they believe legitimate - not rumours - legitimate information that they believe should be in the hands of the Auditor General to get a hold of his office and provide it."

Leslie says that the audit should start next week and is well aware that the current Auditor General Jim McCarter may not be able to see this audit through to its conclusion as he announced earlier that he'd be stepping down on May 1.

"Our PR firm is working with that office to make sure that continuity and the facts and the information that's getting forwarded passes from one hand to the next."

Would a pro-horse racing conclusion from the audit mark a return and rebirth of the slots-at-racetracks program? Leslie isn't confident Ontario will ever have an official "slots-at-racetracks" program again.

"I personally don't think it will return, particularly in the form that it was. I'm hopeful that there may be some form of slot revenue sharing at some racetracks but I would doubt very much that there's going to be an industry program called slots-at-racetracks going forward."

To listen the to the full interview between Borg and Leslie, click the play button below.


Trot Radio Episode 292 - OHRIA's Sue Leslie

Audio Format: MP3 audio

Host: Norm Borg


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