- "We are committed to the people in the industry but there comes a point when it's health care and education or horse racing. That's our bottom line," Aly Vitunski said. "It's unfortunate but we have to choose health and education."
What happened, as most know, is that slots were housed at racetracks as a way to introduce them into a ready made market. The horse industry built infrastructure and a breeding business, based on that. In addition, places like Woodbine changed the way they did business, by not charging for admission, as one example.
It's terrible government policy to not transition a business off of a subsidy, when the government made the overture to begin with. I think others would feel the same way if it was their private business who was offered a similar deal, and you spent millions on products, infrastructure, plant and equipment, only to find at the stroke of a pen it's all over.
The whole thing really, really smells, and McGuinty et al should be ashamed of themselves.
As for racings side, I don't know about you, but the propagandist articles, disguised as news items, on Standardbred Canada are beginning to be annoying. Almost every story I read on this topic uses incendiary language like "ill advised" plan, or "inexplicable" or others. They're acting no better than this lady with her "it's unfortunate we have to choose health care and education" comments, like somehow if you oppose the government's plan you want bad health care and dumb kids.
It's like we're watching two children yelling insults at each other in a schoolyard. I guess that's just the way it is in the business of politics and government programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment