Bill, I'll go ahead hesitatingly. You may want to add to it.
Listen, there's no question that it is a very labour-intensive industry. On the thoroughbred side when we run live racing at Woodbine, studies show that there are approximately 2.1 persons employed per horse. We expect to have 2,000 horses on the Woodbine backstretch within a month or so. There will be 3,000 non-Woodbine employees employed on the Woodbine backstretch alone, and that infrastructure is a little different from the harness side, as you described, in southwestern Ontario. Most of the employees there are on training centres scattered throughout southwestern Ontario.
There are 60 off-track facilities, training facilities, within 15 miles of Milton and in southwestern Ontario. It's very labour intensive and it goes everywhere from hay farmers to seed farmers to blacksmiths. Christina Litz mentioned it earlier. It is a very labour-intensive industry and a very important rural industry. It's the backbone of a lot of rural Canada.
This phenomenon has a long history of supporting jobs, and I think that's in large part why the Government of Ontario is so supportive of our industry—because of the 25,000 jobs that are represented in Ontario alone. It also has a vast employment market across the country. As Bill Ford mentioned earlier, there are vast economic spinoffs from the economics of this industry. That's why we're here today, to have this committee understand and be aware of the risks involved if this industry is not protected the way that the government bill came forward and protected our industry.
I don't think, by the way.... We have had conversations with MP Waugh and MP Masse, and there was no intention to hurt the horse-racing industry. We understand that. This is now an opportunity to merge these two bills and to make sure of how this needs and deserves that protection in order to protect the families and the many livelihoods across this entire country.