The Horse Racing Alberta Amendment Act, 2014 replaces the corporation’s board appointment model. It creates a 10-member board with six public members appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council and four members designated by racing-track operators and breed associations.
The bill also removes the board’s authority to set member remuneration and expressly excludes Horse Racing Alberta from Alberta’s Financial Administration Act, Fiscal Management Act and Auditor General Act. Together, the amendments recast the corporation’s governance structure and its relationship with provincial oversight mechanisms.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill replaces the existing board composition with six government-appointed public members and four industry-designated members. It imposes three-year terms, a six-year consecutive service limit, a three-year cooling-off period, eligibility restrictions based on criminal convictions, and a quorum of six.
Who It Affects
Horse Racing Alberta’s directors, the Alberta government, licensed A- and B-level racetrack operators, recognized racing-breed associations and the public members appointed to the board are directly affected. The corporation’s financial administration and audit arrangements also change because the bill excludes it from three provincial statutes.
Why It Matters
The legislation gives the government a larger formal role in selecting the board while reducing the number of seats directly allocated to industry organizations. At the same time, it places Horse Racing Alberta outside core provincial financial-management and audit frameworks, raising practical questions about accountability and oversight.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill continues the Alberta Racing Corporation under the name Horse Racing Alberta but replaces the board structure set out in the existing Act. The new board has six members of the general public, including a chair designated by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
It also includes one representative selected by A-level racetrack operators, one selected by B-level racetrack operators, one designated by the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association, one designated by the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Alberta Division), and one designated collectively by other racing-breed associations recognized by the corporation.
The appointment rules give the Lieutenant Governor in Council control over the public-member seats and allow it to set directors’ remuneration and expenses. Industry organizations retain the ability to designate their representatives, but the bill does not preserve the former arrangement in which the board itself played a substantial role in selecting public and industry nominees.
Each term may last up to three years, and no director may serve more than six consecutive years. After six consecutive years, the director must wait three years before becoming eligible again.The bill carries forward the five-year disqualification rule for people convicted of an offence under the Gaming and Liquor Act or the Horse Racing Alberta Act, or of an indictable Criminal Code offence.
It also rescinds the appointments of every director serving immediately before the new provision comes into force. That makes the restructuring immediate rather than dependent on the expiry of existing terms.The legislation narrows the board’s bylaw authority by deleting its express power to establish and pay directors’ remuneration and expenses.
It then states that Horse Racing Alberta is not a provincial agency for purposes of the Financial Administration Act, the Fiscal Management Act or the Auditor General Act. The result is a corporation with a newly government-shaped board but a more explicitly independent status under Alberta’s principal financial-management and public-audit statutes.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The new board has 10 positions: six public members and four representatives designated by racetrack operators or racing-breed associations.
The Lieutenant Governor in Council selects the six public members and designates one of them as chair; it may also determine directors’ remuneration and expenses.
A director’s term cannot exceed three years, and six consecutive years of service triggers a three-year ineligibility period before reappointment.
A person convicted within the previous five years under the Gaming and Liquor Act or Horse Racing Alberta Act, or convicted of an indictable Criminal Code offence, cannot join the board.
Horse Racing Alberta is excluded from the Financial Administration Act, Fiscal Management Act and Auditor General Act, while the outgoing board’s appointments are rescinded when the new section takes effect.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Amendment to the Horse Racing Alberta Act
This provision identifies the statute being amended: the Horse Racing Alberta Act, RSA 2000, chapter H-11.3. It functions as the bill’s enabling clause and places the subsequent changes within the corporation’s existing legislative framework.
New board composition and appointment rules
The replacement section establishes the board as a 10-member body. Six seats belong to members of the general public appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, while four seats represent the organized racing sector: A-level tracks, B-level tracks, the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association, the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Alberta Division), and other recognized racing-breed associations.
The provision gives the government direct control over the public seats and the chair designation, while leaving industry groups responsible for their designated positions. It also sets the term and eligibility rules, preserves the five-year criminal-conviction screen, permits the Lieutenant Governor in Council to set compensation and expenses, and fixes quorum at six members.
Termination of existing appointments
When the replacement board provision comes into force, every appointment held by a serving director is rescinded. Existing directors therefore do not simply continue until their original terms end; the new governance model requires a fresh set of appointments and designations.
Removal of the board’s remuneration bylaw power
The amendment removes language that expressly authorized the board to establish and pay its members’ remuneration and expenses. Compensation authority consequently moves away from the board’s internal bylaw-making power and aligns with the separate authority given to the Lieutenant Governor in Council under the new board provision.
Exclusion from provincial agency statutes
The bill replaces the existing status provision with a broader exclusion. Horse Racing Alberta is not a provincial agency for purposes of the Financial Administration Act, Fiscal Management Act or Auditor General Act.
This language goes beyond the former provision, which excluded the corporation only from the Financial Administration Act. The amendment therefore addresses not just financial administration but also fiscal-management requirements and the Auditor General’s statutory framework.
Coming into force by proclamation
The Act takes effect on proclamation. The restructuring, rescission of existing appointments and statutory exclusions therefore begin when the proclamation brings the legislation into force, rather than automatically on assent.
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Who Benefits
- The Alberta government, which gains direct authority to appoint all six public members and designate the board chair.
- Public appointees, who receive six dedicated board seats and therefore a larger formal presence than under the prior structure.
- Licensed racetrack operators, which retain dedicated representation through separate A-level and B-level seats rather than relying on a combined industry allocation.
- Recognized racing-breed associations, which retain designated seats while the legislation clarifies the position for associations outside the standardbred and thoroughbred organizations.
- Horse Racing Alberta’s administrators, who receive a clearer statutory statement that the corporation is outside three provincial financial-management and audit regimes.
Who Bears the Cost
- Existing directors, whose appointments end when the replacement board provision comes into force, regardless of how much time remained in their terms.
- Racing organizations seeking board influence, which collectively receive fewer directly industry-controlled positions than under the previous structure and must use the new designation arrangements.
- Horse Racing Alberta, which loses express authority to establish and pay directors’ remuneration and expenses through its own bylaws.
- The Lieutenant Governor in Council and responsible provincial officials, who must fill six public seats, designate a chair and manage the transition to the new board.
- Stakeholders seeking conventional provincial oversight, who may face less access to the controls, reporting structures or audit mechanisms associated with the three excluded statutes.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill seeks stronger public and governmental influence over a corporation serving a regulated industry while placing that corporation outside major provincial financial and audit statutes. More direct appointment power may improve accountability to government and the public, but reduced statutory oversight may make that accountability less transparent; the legislation does not fully resolve how those two design choices will work together.
The bill combines two moves that do not point in the same direction. It increases the government’s role in choosing the corporation’s leadership by creating six public appointments and a government-designated chair.
Yet it simultaneously removes Horse Racing Alberta from the Financial Administration Act, Fiscal Management Act and Auditor General Act. The practical accountability model will therefore depend heavily on the corporation’s own governance rules, reporting arrangements and any oversight available under the Horse Racing Alberta Act or other applicable law.
The transition also has operational consequences. Rescinding all existing appointments avoids uncertainty about which governance model controls, but it creates an immediate recruitment and designation task and may interrupt institutional continuity.
The bill specifies the principal categories of directors and their tenure limits, but the text provided does not set out a detailed process for resolving disagreement or delay among organizations responsible for industry designations. It also leaves the relationship between government-appointed public members and industry representatives to the board’s future operation rather than prescribing voting balances beyond the six-member quorum.
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