Fort Erie set with some provisos; Colonial deal inching forward

[Kasept]

Fort Erie track deal struck late
By Tony Ricciuto, Niagara Falls Review

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/201...al-struck-late

Money has been committed and there will be racing at the Fort Erie Race Track this year, according to the province.

But will it be enough to host a full season of competition?

Jim Thibert, chief executive officer of the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium, is not so sure.

"The dollars, the dates and the races are not quite adding up," said Thibert, who took part in a meeting Monday morning with his board of directors and a closed-door meeting was scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. at Fort Erie town hall to discuss a property matter.

"I think this could be worked out if we had a little more time. The problem is that we are in the crunch of being in the last day of our fiscal year. If this was two weeks ago we would have time to work things out.

"We are asking everybody to redo their math. We don't know how it came to this, but for us it's extremely important because we are a not-for-profit group."

The fiscal year for the consortium ended Monday, which meant track officials had to strike a new contract deal with various parties before the end of the day.

Premier Kathleen Wynne has committed $500 million over five years to help save Ontario's horse-racing industry. That's $100 million more than what the province had pledged in October.

For regional tracks such as Fort Erie, Windsor and others, it will be an extra $20 million annually over five years which means they will be able to have up to 40 race dates. Those dates are still being finalized.