Ontario’s Sunshine List, an annual accounting of public sector workers making $100,000 or more, may not be the final word on well-paid talent in the province.

There is a second, lesser-known list — one exclusively for the live horse-racing industry.

The struggling sport, on the public dime after a slots revenue-sharing deal with the province ended in 2013, is subsidized by Doug Ford’s budget-slashing government by up to $105 million annually over the next 19 years. This funding is for racetrack operations and purse support, according to the finance ministry.

Three chefs, two track announcers and Woodbine Entertainment Group’s president and CEO Jim Lawson are among the 69 people on the racetracks’ pay chart. Lawson’s 2018 salary of $751,524 would put him in Ontario’s top 10 wage earners if the horse-racing information were integrated with the broader Sunshine List.

Of the 69 people, 62 work at Toronto-based Woodbine Entertainment, one of North America’s largest horse racing and gaming operations. Collectively, executives and employees from six of Ontario’s 15 racetracks earned about $11 million last year.

The horse-racing document was quietly released by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. on March 27 — the same day the Treasury Board Secretariat published the Sunshine List, which can be searched by name and employer. Racetrack funding flows directly from OLG revenues.

“Our government understands the importance of horse racing to our local communities,” Treasury Board spokesperson Hayden Kenez said in an emailed response to disclosure questions.

“That is why we continue to support the industry in Ontario.”

Are there any more lists? Hard to say.

The government would not tell the Star if it had a central registry to track all programs with funding requirements tied to public salary disclosures. Instead, individual ministries would have to be contacted to determine if those ministries had funding agreements with wage-reporting stipulations.

“Treasury Board Secretariat is responsible for public sector salary disclosure as required by the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act (PSSDA),” said finance ministry press secretary Robert Gibson in an emailed statement.

“With respect to salary disclosure in the horse racing industry, the Transfer Payment Agreement between each racetrack and OLG requires disclosure of salaries over $100,000,” Gibson continued.

“Any other public sector salary disclosure beyond that which is required by the (PSSDA) would be dependent on the program and the ministry responsible for the funding.”

The horse-racing list isn’t secret. It’s been around since 2014. But it’s not publicized.

Just to find it, one would first have to know two things: that the list existed, and that it’s posted on the OLG website.

Nor is horse racing’s wage information searchable via the treasury board’s online Sunshine List tool. That’s because the industry is not considered subject to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, according to treasury board and the finance ministry.

But the distinction can be confusing.

Sunshine Listers work for organizations — such as government, hospitals, school boards, Crown agencies and “other public sector employers” — that are subject to the PSSDA.

Although the OLG displays horse racing’s wage reporting as “PSSDA 2018 Salary Disclosure List” and each racetrack is categorized as “other public sector employers” on the document, the horse-racing industry does not fall under the act, according to Kenez.

“As a provincial crown agency, OLG is required to post the salaries of transfer payment recipients under the Horse Racing Partnership Funding Program … on behalf of government,” Kenez wrote in an email.

“There is a clause in the Transfer Payment Agreement … with each racetrack that states: Where the recipient is not subject to the PSSDA, the recipient shall disclose the amount of salary and benefits paid in the previous year by the employer to or in respect of any employee, associated with the racetrack, to whom the employer paid at least $100,000 in salary,” Kenez continued.

“The recipient consents to the public disclosure of this information and to sharing of this information with other crown agencies.”

The government does not intrude on the daily operations of Ontario’s 15 racetracks. Kenez said “staffing decisions, including salaries, are made by the individual racetracks that are responsible for their own business decisions.”

While on government support, the number of workers on horse racing’s payroll disclosures has increased to 69, up from 42 in 2014. At Woodbine Entertainment Group, often referred to as WEG, the number has nearly doubled, from 33 on the 2014 list to 62 last year.

After Dalton McGuinty’s government announced in 2012 it was killing the lucrative, long-running slots sharing program with the racing industry, the province began supporting the sport under Kathleen Wynne, with the proviso that salaries over $100,000 be made public. Public funding was to help racetracks eventually become self-sustaining.

Horse racing’s initial salary disclosures were posted by the Ontario Racing Commission (now dissolved) and since 2016, have been posted by OLG.

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Jamie Dykstra, WEG’s director of communications, said in an email there are three main reasons 62 WEG employees appear on the latest salary disclosure document.

He said the Sunshine List hasn’t been adjusted for inflation since inception in 1996 and if it had, “today the Sunshine list would report salaries above $152,000.” So “most organizations will have more people on the Sunshine List than they previously would have.”

Secondly, Dykstra said after the slots program was cancelled, WEG was “required to (re-evaluate) its overall business, strategy and corporate structure to ensure long-term viability and sustainability of the horse racing industry which employs upwards of 45,000 people throughout the province.

“A big part of the strategy to sustain the industry is to diversify the business and create new revenue streams through the development of the nearly 700 acres of land Woodbine Entertainment owns,” Dykstra continued, referring to the operation’s land parcel in Rexdale.

“This type of evolution of a business requires new leadership and expertise in many areas like operational management, property development, project management, technology, marketing, etc. Through these efforts, Woodbine Entertainment fully expects to become self-sustaining” within five years.

Lastly, Dykstra said WEG launched a performance-based incentive program after 2014 “to help recruit and retain talented employees and remain competitive in the marketplace to support the business strategy.” He explained that “some of those whose annual base salary falls under $100,000 appear on this list due to achieving their goals and receiving an incentive payout.”

A WEG compensation committee, steered by a charter posted on the track’s website, determines salary and compensation and “every year, the company obtains an independent third-party report on wage trends and merit increase projections and bases its decision on this guidance,” he said.

Dykstra also emphasized: “It is important to note that the government funding Woodbine Entertainment receives may only be used exclusively to fund purse payments to racing participants. Government funding is not used for staff or executive compensation.”

Finance’s Gibson said “over time, government support will decrease, allowing the industry to build on a sustainable model of self-management.”

Woodbine Entertainment Group has 2,000 employees working at horse-racing tracks in Toronto (for thoroughbreds at Woodbine Racetrack) and Campbellville (for standardbreds at Woodbine Mohawk Park).

Besides the two tracks, WEG operates nearly two dozen restaurants and bars within those facilities; WEGZ Stadium Bar in Vaughan; 57 off-track betting locations in bars and restaurants across Ontario; an in-house broadcast department of 65 people that will produce 354 race cards this year; and a “growing global wagering business that distributes our content in more than 20 countries,” Dykstra stated.

WEG is an Ontario corporation without share capital, which means “after paying expenses, monies are invested back into horse racing to help sustain the industry in Ontario,” said Dykstra.

Other items of note on the horse-racing disclosures:

Seven people on the list from five racetracks other than WEG earned less than $160,000 each — John Stolte, the general manager of Flamboro Downs, made the most at $158,112; there are three chefs (two from WEG at $111,954 and $138,654 and one at $124,615 from Ottawa’s Rideau Carleton Raceway); at Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium, Ontario’s only other thoroughbred track after Woodbine, Tom Valiquette earns $144,999 as chief operating officer and chief financial officer; while Jessica Buckley, the highest-paid woman, collects $234,611 as president of Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Jim Thibert, CEO of Fort Erie, said in an email that “each track is its own business” and there are various ways to establish salaries. Thibert said he hired Valiquette about eight years ago and the two agreed on a salary. Valiquette is the only Fort Erie worker on horse racing’s public sector salary disclosure list.

Fort Erie is owned by an American company “who lease us the land as we are the ones licensed to race, and (the track is) a not-for-profit corporation” that answers to a board of directors, said Thibert. The Prince of Wales Stakes, one of the jewels in the Canadian Triple Crown, is run at Fort Erie.

James Martin is the general manager of the track at Grand River Agricultural Society, which has 16 full-time staff. (It grows to about 100 during the summers, when standardbred horses race.)

Martin, who worked at WEG for nearly 20 years, made $130,439 in 2018, while his chief financial officer, Helen Bogl, earned $106,420. Martin said a volunteer board determines compensation.

On March 21, the Ford government announced it was “supporting rural communities through new investments to help the province’s horse racing industry create and protect good jobs.”

That initiative provides $10 million a year “to support programs for breeders and horse people through the Horse Improvement Program (HIP). This will support breeding and industry development for Ontario-bred horses and will be administered by Ontario Racing.” This is in addition to the annual $105 million.

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