We'll 'start letting people go,' racetrack says if Ontario funding doesn't come through soon

The Fort Erie Race Track, which has employed locals for generations, fears it will have to lay off staff if provincial funding delays persist.

“If we can’t get those purses up, if we can’t get horsemen … we have to start letting people go if we can’t keep the lights on,” James Culic, Fort Erie Race Track’s communications manager, told CBC Niagara.

No immediate job is at risk, Culic says, but next year's budget may mean a different story. “We’re in a very tight spot," he says.

The historic racetrack says the annual funding from the province, $35 million total across Ontario, has helped create summer jobs and fund purses — prize money distributed to groomers, trainers and owners of winning racehorses — in the last decade.

Culic says the Ontario government is not the problem. In fact, he says they have been financially supporting the racetrack with recuperating revenue loss from slot machines that were removed in 2012.

For this year, “everything was lined up with Ontario Racing and Ontario Lottery Gaming (OLG),” said Culic.