PC Horseracing Critic Randy Pettapiece says recently disclosed documents reveal the government rushed to kill the Slots at Racetracks program, despite warnings it would devastate the industry.
The Perth Wellington MPP says internal government documents and emails disclosed in a civil lawsuit confirm the Liberals were fully aware of the damage that would do to rural Ontario.
“That decision, like so many others, was not about what was best for Ontario. It was about what was best for the Liberals,” he says.
An August 2012 email for former Liberal cabinet minister John Wilkinson predicted the collapse of the industry with 23,000 job losses and 27,000 dead horses.
He adds there is evidence the government actually rewrote parts of an independent 2012 Drummond Report to fit their agenda.
In another email, a top advisor to former Premier Dalton McGuinty wrote: “meeting with premier just ended. He was inclined to go to $0 for horse racing.”
“It’s no wonder so many people have stopped trusting this government,” notes Pettapiece. “Whether it’s the phony unfair hydro plan’, $1.1-billion gas plants scandal, or a secret plan to destroy Ontario’s horse racing industry, the Liberals have given us no reason to believe them.”