Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor talks with Bullet News outside the Ontario Legislature in this May 31, 2012 file photo by John Robbins.
JOHN ROBBINS/Bullet News
FORT ERIE – Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor reached out to Ontario’s opposition parties for help to save the Fort Erie Erie Race Track.
But the independent-minded Liberal MPP has had his hand slapped back by the Progressive Conservatives, who say it’s Craitor and his Grit colleagues who created the “mess” that threatens the very future of the 115-year-old border oval and tens of thousands of horse-racing jobs across the province.
“I’m actually outraged by (Craitor) doing this,” Monte McNaughton, PC MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, told Bullet News.
“The Liberals including Kim Craitor caused this mess. They’re the absolute reason why the Fort Erie Race Track is closing.”
On Wednesday, Craitor joined Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin and Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium chief executive officer Jim Thibert for a press conference at the track to provide their response to recommendations contained in a report by a government-appointed panel considering transitional support for the racing industry.
The panel’s report was made public by Ontario Agriculture Minister Ted McMeekin on Tuesday.
Among its many recommendations, the panel has suggested cutting the number of live racing days for B-class thoroughbreds to 30 from the 78 days run this past season.
The same panel – made up of three former Ontario cabinet ministers, one from each of the three main political parties – suggested moving races from Fort Erie to Ajax Downs raceway, should the track close permanently at the end of the year.
“I was absolutely shocked,” Craitor said of the panel’s report. “This is not what I expected.”
While he agrees with many of the recommendations contained in the report by the Horse Racing Industry Transition Panel released Tuesday, Craitor was blunt about his opinion of the recommendations concerning the 155-year-old border oval, one of Fort Erie’s largest employers.
“The report screwed up. It screwed up when it talked about Fort Erie,” said Craitor.
Craitor says not only should Fort Erie be allowed the same 78 days of thoroughbred racing hosted by the track this year, Fort Erie should be given a bigger slice of the dates for quarter horse racing.
Quarter horse racing is offered primarily at Ajax, with a limited number of races being offered at Fort Erie for the past three years.
“The quarter horse industry belongs in Fort Erie,” said an emotional Craitor. “It doesn’t belong at a track (Ajax) that isn’t even a race track.”
The transition panel was set up earlier this year to deal with the fallout of the provincial government’s decision to pull the plug on the lucrative slots-at-racetracks funding program.
That program was set up in the late 1990s during the tenure of the government of former PC premier Mike Harris. Slot machines at horse racing tracks were seen as a new source of revenue from the province and also a way of helping out the horse-racing industry in the face of competition from commercial casinos and other forms of gambling.
The government permanently closed three slot facilities at race tracks in Fort Erie, Windsor and Sarnia on April 30. Ontario plans to privatize the remaining facilities as Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation continues rolling out its so-called modernization plan, which also includes plan for a Toronto casino.
Premier Dalton McGuinty and Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan have repeatedly defended the decision to kill the racetrack slots program, saying the money is needed to protect health and education funding during a time when other government programs are being cut in order to eliminate the provincial deficit by 2017-18.
Critics, including McNaughton, say the government is making a huge mistake, putting as many as 60,000 jobs at risk and dealing a potentially fatal blow to the horse racing and breeding industries in Ontario.
Craitor says he plans to talk to the NDP and PC leadership, hoping to convince them to join him in urging the panel reverse its recommendations with respect to Fort Erie.
With news that McGuinty plans to step down once a new leader of the Liberal party is chosen in late January, no one is quite sure whether the government’s new racetrack policy or the panel’s recommendations will survive the transfer of power or an election that could come as early as this spring.
Monte McNaughton
McNaughton says Craitor’s decision to seek help from the NDP and Tories at this late stage is particularly galling given McGuinty’s decision to shut down the Legislature early, sending MPPs home until sometime after a leadership contest.
“Obviously, Kim Craitor doesn’t count inside his own party and doesn’t have a voice,” said McNaughton.
“But for Kim Craitor to ask for out help after the Legislature has been closed is an absolute disgrace,” said McNaughton.
Meanwhile, the NDP also criticized the Liberals in the wake of the transition panel report.
“The report makes it quite clear that the Liberal government was wrong in its decision to leave the horse racing industry out in the cold,” said Taras Natyshak, NDP MPP for Essex, said in a statement
“With a swipe of a pen and without any consultation, the government cancelled a revenue generating program without providing an alternative to the industry,” said Natyshak.
“It showed complete disregard for the people employed in the industry. This report makes it clear that the horse racing industry needs some sort of public support to survive and transform.”
He continued: “It is a pity that the horse racing industry has had to waste a year fighting for their right to exist when the government could have been working and consulting with them on future steps for the industry.”
6 Comments on "POLITICS: Tories slap olive branch out of Craitor’s hand, calling handling of horse-racing issue disgraceful"
Kim Traitor is a disgrace. I fully agree with McNaughton. Talk about to little to late!!! What a joke this man is. These politicians make to much money to fight for what is right for the people. Primary concern for these kind of guys is to get re-elected. What a complete and utter shambles this Liberal Party is in. To prorogue parliament when so much work needs to be done is unbelievable.
I have a question with a yes or no answer. will the pc or the ndp partys reinstate the slots at racetrack program if they are elected ?
Its not the fact that Craitor asked for help too late…..they should have helped from the beginning.
I am sick of hearing all these horseman crying about the end of essentially another government welfare program, this time not corporate or individual, but for an entire industry. When your archaic little races are constantly losing money, more than often purses greatly exceed all income taken, then it’s time to go. Find your own ways to survive. We don’t need to support you playing my little pony anymore. And the fact that you all love horses so much, that you will threaten the government with a mass slaughter is pathetic and shows your love for these animals. Why not take the meat option then? If you have that mindframe. My industry was all outsourced to India and Bangladesh and this government did sweet f’ all, and we are much larger industry that had no bail outs or handouts. Sorry free ride is over.
mr grimes…its obvious that you have no idea what you are talking about…maybe you should get some facts before you make such an outrageous comment. by calling this a welfare program,you have no idea,and the money that is generated by this program is one of the most successful government programs ever and it has never cost tax payers a dime,,,you are a discrace sir
Kim Craitor had every oppuntity to tell his mighty leader Dalton no. Now I think he is worried that he wont get relected and he should be. Shame on You Mr. Craitor