News release for immediate distribution
To: news directors, assignment editors: political, business and financial news
Source: Attractions Hippiques
Horseracing in Quebec
OPEN LETTER FROM PAUL J. MASSICOTTE
TO MNA FRANÇOIS LEGAULT
MONTREAL, May 19, 2008—Paul J. Massicotte, owner of Attractions Hippiques, today published an open letter to François Legault in which he deplores the demagogic and misleading remarks Mr. Legault made during a media briefing last week.
In this letter, Mr. Massicotte says he has no objection to making public the contract he was awarded following a public call for tenders and that he is refraining from taking legal action in the hope of reaching a solution satisfactory to all parties concerned.
Following is Mr. Massicotte’s letter:
Dear Mr. Legault:
In the National Assembly on Wednesday, May 14, you made a number of serious allegations regarding my personal integrity, supposed secret clauses in the contract between my company, Attractions Hippiques, and the Quebec government, as well as on our management of racetracks.
The purpose of my open letter is to respond to the unjustified attacks you have made on my intellectual and moral integrity and to correct the false assertions you have been purveying.
Through your remarks in the National Assembly and to the media, you have slandered my honour and my moral integrity by attempting to portray me as a major donor of funds to the Quebec Liberal Party, implying that I won the call for tenders by contributing staggering amounts of money and through my contacts on Premier Jean Charest’s team. I have in my possession documents issued by Quebec’s chief electoral officer showing that I donated $2,500 to the LPQ in 2000 and 2001. This is the entirety of my contributions, which are well below the legal limit and the contributions of $2,500$ per year that you wrongly reported to the media. If you view as suspect anyone who helps fund a party by respecting the rules introduced by René Lévesque himself, could you then tell me how many suspect people there are within your own party? These unfounded accusations by a member of the National Assembly, especially one who belongs to René Lévesque’s own party, are highly demagogic and intended to distort public opinion.
I also wish to point out that I have never appealed—directly or indirectly—to the government for preferential treatment in the context of the call for tenders to relaunch horseracing in Quebec. I challenge you to prove the contrary. While I have ties with the federal Liberal party, my ties with its Quebec counterpart were virtually nonexistent, and until I was awarded the contract to relaunch horseracing, I had no relations with the Quebec Premier nor with the Finance Minister at the time, nor with the current President of the Treasury Board.
Contrary to your allegations, I am an honest businessman. Attractions Hippiques was awarded the contract to privatize racetracks in Quebec following a tendering process conducted in due form and respecting, insofar as I am concerned, all rules inherent in this process.
Moreover, in response to your claims regarding the so-called secrecy that surrounds my company’s activities, I wish to point out that my associates requested a meeting with PQ party president Pauline Marois several months ago, to present her with my projects and our industry’s issues. Unfortunately, she refused to meet with us. Had she not done so, you would undoubtedly been able to obtain the information you wanted about our industry and would therefore have refrained from making flagrantly false statements about me, such as claiming that “before privatization, government aid was $25 million yearly and that following privatization, this aid was $49 million yearly for the first two years, and then $40 million each subsequent year.” In fact, we were to receive $28 million in 2007. However, because of problems with turnout at the existing Loto-Québec Ludoplexes and due to the fact that the Ludoplex on the north shore of Montreal has not yet been built, we received only $8.1 million in 2007 and anticipate receiving only $8.8 million in 2008.
Because of my remaining commercial negotiations, I had not authorized publication of the contract. But these negotiations are now over, and in the interest of clarity, I no longer have any objection to the publication of the contract I have with the government and with Loto-Québec. The government is therefore freed of the confidentiality clauses that bound us, and you will see that there is no dishonorable clause that violates market laws or the province’s interest.
In the context of the business model in the call for tenders, I believed in the future of horseracing in Quebec. My desire to make good on my commitments—even beyond my contractual obligations—means that my company had a $18.7 million deficit for 2007. We are expecting sizeable new losses in 2008, since expected revenues from the Loto-Québec Ludoplexes have not materialized. I invested $15 million to redevelop the Trois Rivières racetrack, $8 million more than stipulated in the agreement, $23 million in Quebec City, $5 million more than initially projected, and $2 million in Aylmer.
I have had to resign myself to cutting back race programs and purses in order to maintain the viability of racetracks until the government by Loto-Québec finds a solution to the problem of the Ludoplexes that were developed, built and operated by Loto-Québec, not by Attractions Hippiques. I can accept to lose money, but there are limits.
Furthermore, relocating the Montreal racetrack north of the city, as stated in the proposal, has not received support from public powers but instead has faced obstacles. I have to go it alone. The expectations raised during the negotiation of the contract have not been realized. It is my company, and ultimately the men and women who work at the racetrack, that bears the consequences of this situation.
If I am not officially stating that my partners are in default of payment, it is because I still hope they will be able to arrive at a solution so that the racetracks can continue operating, 2,500 to 3,000 employees can continue to earn a living, and the public can continue attending races. Contrary to certain claims, there is indeed an audience for these activities: there were more than 1.5 million admissions to the racetracks in the last year before renovations. In Montreal, we averaged more than 48,000 people every month, despite a decade in which practically nothing was done in terms of either promotion or infrastructures under the former management.
For us, taking responsible action consists in finding a solution, together with the government and Loto-Québec, to rectify the problems concerning the government’s contribution, via Loto-Québec, as provided for in the business model contained in the public call for tenders.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Massicotte
Owner
Attractions Hippiques
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INFORMATION:
Dean Dussault
514-795-5757
ddussault@national.ca
