Wellington County council was looking for hard facts to present to the Ontario government when it held its equine meeting on May 29 at the county museum here.
Veterinarian and researcher Dr. Bob Wright presented the crowd of nearly 200 people some research on the economic impacts that could be felt if the horse industry disappears.
Warden Chris White told the audience after seeing Wright’s presentation, “It begins to sink in. We need to tell the story.”
Wright cited a number of reports and studies on the industry going back to 1993.
There are 380,000 horses in Ontario, and their total economic impact is $675 million a year. That is just the money spent by horse people every year in the province. He said there is a total of $6.9 billion invested in the entire industry.
Wright said there are 80,000 people involved in the equine industry, and there are 30,000 horses connected to the horse racing industry in the province. There are over 21,000 standardbreds, 8,000 thoroughbreds and one thousand quarter horses.
The racing industry got its boost from the slots partnership in the late 1990s, and in 2001 Wellington County had 18,293 horses. By 2006, that figure reached 27,530.
Wright cited a study that showed in 2008, there were 10,239 horses in the racing side of the business, and that jumped to 26,000 in 2010. Wright noted there had been a horse shortage for tracks back in 1996.
He also said the Grand River Raceway, built in 2003 and opened in 2004, has had 2,377 unique horses racing there, with over 100 horses a race night circling the track.
He added the 60 trucks and trailers used to get those horses to each race date are valued at over $6 million.
Wright said farmers supply 27,000 bales of hay to the racing industry, 54,225 bales of straw, and 3,154 tonnes of oats.
He said the raceway, through the Grand River Agricultural Society that owns it, donates $80,000 to $100,000 a year to various projects in the community, from supporting local parks to offering scholarships to students getting involved in agriculture. It supports Equine Guelph, the University of Guelph research group of the equine industry. Equine Guelph is also doing international research into human genome and the possibility of horse research being able to help humans.
Wright said the Grand River Raceway spends $33 million every year, on “just the horsemen.”
The raceway has also hired 43 people for the operation, and area farmers grow 3,200 acres of hay for the horses there each year.
Wright said some people have already predicted 40% losses due to the provincial government suddenly killing its slots for raceways agreement that saw the industry receive 10% of the slots profits.
He believes it because losses are already mounting from the announcement in March.
Wright said the province is receiving between one and two dollars for every dollar it spends on the equine industry.
White told the audience those are “very startling numbers when they are laid out.”
Raceway general manager
Grand River Raceway’s general manager Ted Clarke said the track has supplied $50 million in racing purses since the track opened in 2004.
He said before that, the government of the day recognized race revenue from wagers would fall when the slots opened, which has occurred, but a share of slots revenue was offered to the industry to make up for that drop.
Clarke said many people have invested heavily in land, vehicles and hiring, and that in Wellington County, many people from the equine industry are here because of the convenient location to several race tracks.
Since the announcement, “The decline has already begun,” he said. He said the figures “couldn’t be clearer and Ontario will lose $1.6 billion if the industry dies.”
And, Clarke said, it will have an effect in many places.
First, the government will lose taxes since the track pays $1.87 million in wages; it spends $408,000 in services; 1.8 million in goods per year.
The track pays $150,000 in utility costs per year.
Clarke said the regional economy stands to lose under the new rules, and Grand River Raceway was only recently asked to expand.
He said the Grand River Agricultural Society “stands ready to invest in rural Ontario. To eliminate this as a gaming site would be a blow.”
Clarke said the society provides researchers at Equine Guelph with $46,000 for biosecurity studies, supports 4-H clubs, five fall fairs in the area, as well as hosting such events as Pizza Perfect, where grade 3 students learn what goes into their pizzas (by seeing them built from seed to slice) plus $10,000 to Grand River Conservation Authority projects.
It provides such services for free as the Fergus-Elora Rotary Club’s bingo, which is used to raise funds for Groves Hospital and the Sportsplex in Fergus.
After Clarke’s presentation, White told the audience the county is hoping to protect all those investments and expenditures that are part of the local economy.
