Ford defends Skills Development Fund in wake of ethics probe of labour minister

Opposition parties are hoping the investigation by an ethics watchdog will shed some light on the fund and the minister who oversees it. Jon Woodard reports.

Premier Doug Ford defended the province’s Skills Development Fund Friday in wake of a newly launched ethics investigation into Labour Minister David Piccini’s dealings of that fund.

Ontario Integrity Commissioner Cathryn Motherwell opened a probe into Piccini after the provincial Liberals and New Democrats alleged he breached ethics rules in handing out skills training funding.

“I know he’ll co-operate with the integrity commissioner,” Ford said of Piccini at an unrelated news conference in Buffalo, N.Y.

Ford did not answer a question about whether he would fire Piccini.

“We’re going to continue on training people and making sure we hit over a million people trained in the sector,” he said.

Media reports have said that some beneficiaries of the $2.5 billion fund are unions that endorsed the Progressive Conservatives in elections and people who have donated to the party.

The auditor general also found that more than 60 of the lower-scoring fund applicants were approved after they hired a lobbyist, which had the opposition crying foul over what they called preferential treatment.

Auditor general Shelley Spence found Piccini’s office was heavily involved in selecting the recipients of training funds in a process she said was not fair or transparent.

The Skills Development Fund gives money to organizations for projects that help hire, train or retrain workers. The province says they’ve so far trained about 700,000 people and of those, 100,000 people found jobs within 60 days of completing the program.

• Ontario jobs fund not an example of ‘corruption,’ union leader tells Empire Club of Canada

Piccini faced an onslaught of questions from the opposition over seven weeks at Queen’s Park this fall, though he refused to resign and Ford refused to fire him.

Motherwell’s office said it will determine if Piccini violated the Members’ Integrity Act.

The anti-rackets branch of the Ontario Provincial Police has also opened an investigation into a company that received funding from the provincial government and was also connected to the controversial Skills Development Fund.

Keel Digital Solutions, a software company that provides a platform for mental health care, has been receiving funding from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities for student mental health.

In November, the Ford government asked the OPP to investigate the company after a routine audit two years prior identified “irregularities,” the premier’s office said at the time.

A routine audit led to a forensic audit and the result of that forensic audit led to a review of the company.

Keel Digital Solutions has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying it has complied with all laws and honoured all contractual obligations. The company has said it’s being “scapegoated” for the problems with the fund and has done nothing wrong.

But the connections to the halls of provincial power are a sign that the OPP should refer its investigation to the federal RCMP, said Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch, just as it did for its still-ongoing investigation into the Greenbelt scandal.

The head of the OPP serves at the pleasure of Ford, who has defended Piccini publicly, Conacher said.

“This is not an independent police force. I don’t think they should ever be investigating anything to do with the people who handed them the job,” he said.

The OPP told CTV News it had not identified any potential conflict of interest that would require it to send the investigation to another police force.

“The OPP Anti-Rackets Branch received a referral and upon initial review determined that further investigation is warranted,” said OPP spokesperson Gosia Puzio.

“At this stage in the investigation, no potential perceived conflict of interest has been identified. If such a conflict is identified during the course of the investigation, the OPP will take appropriate steps to determine whether the matter should be referred to another investigating agency,” Puzio said.

Both the Liberals and New Democrats renewed their calls Friday for Piccini to resign or for Ford to fire him.

“I don’t think that he can continue in this role given what emerged in the auditor general’s report,” said New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles.

She said Ford should have fired Piccini long ago.

“There’s very clear lines here between the minister of labour and donors and lobbyists who are connected to the premier, to the minister of labour, friends and family,” she said.

Liberal ethics critic Stephanie Smyth called the fund a “personal piggy bank” for the government.

“If Doug Ford lacks the spine to fire David Piccini, I am calling on the minister to step aside now,” she said.

“He should not be anywhere near round six of the Skills Development Fund because this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2025.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press