It took over six years, but a group of standardbred racehorse breeders have won a lawsuit against the province for its cancelling of the Slots At Racetrack Program in 2013.
At the end of June Justice Michael Emery delivered a summary judgment against the Province of Ontario, ruling it breached its contract with harness breeders when it cancelled the program in 2013.
He dismissed claims of negligence and negligent misrepresentation against the province and also dismissed the Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation as a defendant because they were not involved in the broken agreement with the industry.
The amount of the damages is yet to be determined. In initial court filings damages being sought were set at $60 million.
The court will now hear information on what the plaintiffs felt would have been reasonable notice and what damages they incurred.
There were 50 harness horse breeders involved in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was centred around the fact that the breeders had an established five-year breeding plan in place based on the enhanced purses that were available at most Ontario racetracks at the time, purses boosted by the SARP program.
Some breeders, claimed the lawsuit, did not survive.
The province gave a year’s notice about the end of SARP, a program initiated in 1998 to act as an incentive for racetracks to host revenue-generating slots.
SARP led to bigger purses at those racetracks and breeders of horses reacted accordingly.
When the province cancelled the program after 14 years, breeders were in the midst of a breeding plan based on an economic landscape created by SARP.
“The plaintiffs claim that Ontario and OLG gave them insufficient notice of that cancellation because of their rolling investment to breed horses,” says Justice Emery’s written ruling.
The justice said the breeders had rights that included “ the expectation that they would be given reasonable notice if and when Ontario terminated SARP directly or, as it did, by directing OLG to terminate the siteholder agreements with racetracks.”
