People in the horse racing industry in Ontario say thousands of jobs are at stake if the province stops backing it.

This week, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said he was thinking of getting rid of a $345 million subsidy to the industry in an effort to trim the deficit.

Cuts to horse racing could have serious implications for the harness racing industry, including Windsor Raceway.

In Essex, Ont., the whole Williams family makes its living training and racing horses. Mark Williams is also a director at the Ontario Harness Horse Association (OHHA).

He said it's not just his family that would be affected by the cuts.

"We have the feed man, the man who brings our feed — he's impacted. The guy who brings our hay, that's another fellow. The guy who delivers our straw is another fellow," Williams said. "The guy that makes our harnesses."

Williams estimated that 65,000 direct and indirect jobs are tied to horse racing. He compared horse racing to the auto industry when it comes to the impact of possible cuts.

"How can that be better to put 65,000 people out of work?," he said.

If the family farm shuts down, he'll be looking for government help in a different way, Williams said.

Dollars and sense?

Brian Tropea, General Manager of the OHHA, estimates horse racing is a $2.6 billion industry.

The province also generated $1.7 billion from race track slots last year. Tropea said the province takes 75 per cent of race track slot revenues. The racetracks keep 20 per cent, and that money is split equally between the track and the horse racers. Municipalities keep the remaining 5 per cent.

The only reason the slots were accepted through legislation was because it would help the racing industry — without horse racing, there would be no slot machines in Ontario, Tropea said. He wondered how the province can sidestep this agreement now.

"The horse racing industry is a self-sustaining industry. We have never taken a penny from the government. We subsidize the government, not the other way around," said Tropea in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

Tropea argued the mere suggestion of possible cuts to the industry will have an immediate economic impact. Racers will hesitate to breed their horses if they fear there will be no place to race them in two or three years, he said.

He also warned that because most people in the industry are self-employed, they would be headed for the social assistance lines if the industry collapses, further burdening the government's fiscal situation.

The OHHA was calling on people to join them at a Queen's Park rally on Wed., Feb. 22 at 1 p.m.