‘Can’t make this up!’: Ford government faces questions over nearly $10M going to company with ties to ‘adult entertainment’

NDP Leader Marit Stiles calls on Premier Ford to fire Labour Minister David Piccini over the money that was handed out as part of the Skills Development Fund.

Ontario’s opposition parties are questioning the province’s labour minister about the possibility money from the $2.5 billion Skills Development Fund ended up at a company tied to an “adult entertainment club.”

Records viewed by CTV News show connections between an organization that received under $10 million in grants from the labour ministry and the operator of a new nightclub on Toronto’s exhibition grounds, though the people involved denied that provincial money was used there.

“Adult entertainment slash wedding venues? Can’t make this up!” declared Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles during Question Period on Tuesday, referring to the connection first reported by TheTrillium.ca.

Ontario’s Liberal leader, John Fraser, also stood in the legislature to raise concerns.

“I never dreamed I’d be saying these words in this place. Did the premier actually give $10 million of taxpayer money to the owners of a strip club?” he asked.

In response, Ontario’s Minister of Labour David Piccini, stood with a one-word answer: “No.”

Questions continued in the legislature Wednesday. It’s the latest development in the ongoing scandal around the Skills Development Fund, a government training fund that is meant to train and re-tool workers.

But the fund has come under fire since September thanks to connections from recipients to the governing party unearthed by opposition members and reporters in the media.

Records show that over four years ending in 2025, the labour ministry gave about $9.8 million in grants to a numbered company, 12490625 Canada Institute.

That company shares a director and an address with an agency called “The Social Equality and Inclusion Centre,” which is listed as receiving grants in three rounds of the Skills Development Fund.

On its Facebook page, SEI says it “supports women re-entering the workforce and provides re-training to women who may need to enter a new line of work.”

In an email to CTV News, SEI said it partnered in that mission with several organizations including the Toronto Event Centre and Grand Bizarre, run by Zlatko Starkovski.

Starkovski has operated an event venue out of the Horticulture Building on Toronto’s Exhibition Grounds for at least a decade.

In September of this year, Starkovski opened up FYE Ultraclub in the building, which describes itself on social media as a nightclub “for those where discretion is a must.”

In February, city records show staff licensed the venue as an “adult entertainment club,” a category often used for strip clubs.

In a statement, Starkovski said there are no strippers there.

“No SDF funding has been used for any purpose related to FYE Ultraclub, including the training and compensation of any burlesque dancers, aerialists, or any performers involved in the new FYE Ultraclub project,” he said.

The Social Equality and Inclusion Centre said in an email it “has not been and is not involved in the new FYE Ultraclub pilot entertainment project in any training and financial capacity.”

All of this came only a day after Piccini faced an integrity commissioner complaint over allegedly playing favourites with recipients of the Skills Development Fund.

Piccini is also facing his third week of resignation calls from the opposition.

“Every day we have more headlines. I don’t understand. I have been asking myself why this Minister of Labour is still sitting in his seat and why the premier hasn’t fired him,” Stiles said in a scrum after Question Period on Tuesday.

In the legislature halls, Premier Doug Ford answered a several questions from the media on whether strippers were being trained using government funds.

“That is 100 per cent absolutely false. Just dig into it, do your due diligence, and you will find that. It’s good theatrics for the [Ontario] Liberals. But it’s absolutely false. We are training over 700,000 people. Our goal is to hit a million people and give them an opportunity that they might otherwise not have,” Ford said.

In a statement, Miguel Figueredo, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour, said, ”Our government has already been clear: No — this funding did not train anyone for anything other than in-demand jobs. Any claim to the contrary is false.

“These projects were rigorously evaluated and approved on merit. Across Rounds 2 to 5, the program aims to train nearly 1,000 workers to fill real labour needs in a sector that was devastated by the pandemic and remains vital to Ontario’s economy.

”Tourism and hospitality are major economic, drivers —contributing roughly $15 billion to Ontario’s GDP. Training workers to contribute to that economic output is exactly what the Skills Development Fund is designed to do.

”Every SDF agreement includes strict financial controls, monthly reporting, on-site monitoring and spot audits to ensure funding is used exactly as intended — training workers, period.“