Next Steps

With the consultation period now complete, the AGCO’s ‘Moving Ahead: Horse Racing Regulation in Ontario’ project will proceed to its next stage. In the weeks ahead, the AGCO will continue to closely review the insights and recommendations that have been provided by consultation participants as set out in this Findings Report. Thereafter, the AGCO will identify a number of areas where it is prepared to move ahead with initial reforms to its policies and procedures.

The AGCO is committed to collaborating with its partners and stakeholders as this project continues. Many of the ideas brought forward through the consultation are complex and require continued collaboration with industry to make meaningful policy changes. In this respect, the AGCO intends to strike a series of Working Groups that will be tasked with deliberating and carefully considering more complex public policy issues.

Throughout the consultation period, a range of recommendations were received that fall outside of the existing mandate of the AGCO, typically because the policy area is assigned to another government ministry or agency. These included issues relating to purse structure, industry funding, and federally regulated equine drug programs. These insights and recommendations were carefully noted and will be conveyed to officials in the relevant ministries and agencies and are available on the AGCO’s Moving Ahead webpage.

The AGCO would once again like to extend its sincere appreciation to the many stakeholders and partners that have committed their time, effort, insights and energy to this project to date. We have made great progress so far and look forward to continuing our work together.