Horwath Calls McGuinty On His Stance

Published: September 19, 2012 12:05 pm EDT

Premier Dalton McGuinty was in rural Ontario on Tuesday, September 18 to take in the annual International Plowing Match. While his party is in the midst of delivering a controversial knockout blow to Ontario horse racing, McGuinty got up and said he wants a "strong" provincial racing industry. Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath took the opportunity to call McGuinty out on his head-scratching stance.

A video report by CHCH covering the day's festivities in Roseville captures McGuinty telling an audience that his party is "committed to getting this right, because I know we all want a strong, sustainable horse-racing industry."

Via the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s gaming modernization plan, the Ontario Liberal Government is in the midst of a highly controversial move to phase out the internationally-renowned slots-at-racetracks program --- a program which multiple other racing jurisdictions have modeled their programs after.

The slots-at-racetracks program has annually allowed the provincial government to rake in $1.1 billion in revenue. The program has allowed the provincial racing industry to attract foreign investment; employ in upwards of 60,000 Ontarians, and has allowed the industry to pay $261-million in annual taxes to the government.

While speaking to reporters at Roseville, Horwath took the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy in McGuinty and his words.

"Here we are in a rural community talking about farm families; talking about sustainable futures for agricultural communities," Horwath said, "and we've seen a government that has pretty-much devastated a sub-section of the agricultural economy with the decision to 'deep-six' the horse-racing industry."

(With files from CHCH)

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