Ontario Liberals Throw another $100M at Horse Racing

The Ontario Liberals are giving more money to appease the province’s horse-racing industry.

Premier Kathleen Wynne will announce Monday that she plans to increase support to the horse-racing sector to $500 million over five years, that’s up from $400 million that she announced in October. The funding is subject to review in 2017.

The additional funding is aimed supporting jobs in the horse racing industry.

With the chance of a spring election looming, the minority Liberal Wynne-led government is trying to fix the mistakes of the past, controversial decisions that were made by Wynne’s predecessor, Dalton McGuinty.

McGuinty announced the end of the Slots at Racetracks program in 2012. The partnership agreement gave the province’s 17 race tracks gambling revenue from 1998 to 2012. The program helped keep the industry in business, especially as interest in the sport has been dwindling over the years.

The industry says horse racing directly and indirectly employs approximately 60,000 people in the province.