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Dear Members of Provincial Parliament I am writing you in support of the horse racing and breeding industry in Ontario to provide you with the facts on why you should leave the industry’s partnership with OLG alone. The revenue that the industry receives is not a subsidy, it is a revenue sharing partnership between the OLG and the horse racing industry which provides the Government of Ontario with an increasing amount of revenue to the tune of more than $1 billion a year. The Slots at Racetracks Program is the biggest contributor to the OLG’s profits, which are used to fund healthcare, education and municipalities in Ontario. The government owned, stand-alone casinos are losing money while the horse racing industry shares the burden of increased competition to its wagering dollar. Any change to this revenue sharing partnership, would not only have a negative effect on the horse racing and breeding industry, it could virtually end the successful revenue stream to the province, costing the government of Ontario $1.1 billion dollars per year. Furthermore, the Ontario horse racing and breeding industry employs more than 31,000 people full time in our province. More than $1.5 billion dollars a year are paid in wages by the horse racing and breeding industry. The industry spends approximately $2 billion a year in expenditures, 80% of which is spent primarily in rural, agricultural communities. An effort to save $345 million of well invested revenue, it will cost the government $1.1 billion in annual OLG profit and cripple the rural economy when more than $2 billion in horse racing and breeding industry expenditures disappear. The economics of this proposal just don’t add up. I urge you to take some time to understand just how beneficial the Slots at Racetracks Program is for the government and to leave the horse racing and breeding industry alone. Sincerely,