Opposition parties are again calling on Ontario Premier Doug Ford to fire Labour Minister David Piccini over his handling of a $2.5-billion job training fund mired in controversy.
The Ontario NDP and Liberals said Wednesday they are outraged about the way money has been given out by the provincial government through its Skills Development Fund. Earlier this month, Ontario’s auditor general said in a report that the selection process for funding was “not fair, transparent or accountable.”
For a third-straight day, the fund dominated Question Period at the Ontario Legislature.
“When you have this kind of mismanagement and insider trading and money being shoveled over to people while people are out there trying to just put food on the table, how can you protect somebody who’s doing that?” Ontario Liberal MP John Fraser asked Ford.
“So I’ll ask one more time: Why is this premier spending more time protecting his minister of labour than he is protecting the 700,000 people who are looking for work in this province?”
In response, Ford defended his government’s record.
“We’ve created a million jobs, $70 billion of investment, and my minister right beside me here has 200 companies wanting to invest in Ontario,” Ford said.
Civil servants should make decisions, NDP says
The fund, which aims to spur economic growth, provides funding to organizations for projects that address challenges to hiring, training, or retaining workers.
Ontario Auditor General Shelley Spence found in the Oct. 1 report that Piccini’s office has been heavily involved in selecting projects that get funded under the program and has doled out money to applicants ranked low by bureaucrats without documenting why.
NDP Leader and MPP Marit Stiles speaks during Question Period at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press)
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said it appears that some companies got preferential treatment under the fund.
“Let’s review what we know here, shall we? We know that $742 million went to applicants that were at the bottom of the pile, while 670 high scoring applicants were denied,” Stiles said.
Stiles said impartial civil servants should decide who gets money from the fund, not politicians.
The more transparency, the better: former MPP
Two former Liberal cabinet ministers said there needs to be some distance between the minister and applicants.
Brad Duguid, who was a Liberal MPP from 2003 to 2018, said there should be “no partisan involvement at all” in the funding of projects. He said most funding flows through a minister, but the minister’s integrity must be protected.
“The more transparency you can have, the better,” Duguid said.
Duguid said he had a rule for staff at one point: “The deputy minister has to sign off on everything before it gets to me. So I need to know what’s gone through the ministry process, that it’s a legitimate application, and that the ministry agrees that it meets the criteria. And my rule is just to sign off or point out flaws.
“And don’t tell me what riding they’re in, I don’t want to know.”
John Milloy, who was a Liberal MPP from 2003 to 2014, said he was surprised by the auditor general’s findings. He said the process for companies to be chosen for funding needs to be transparent, and the fact that the minister had a “formal role in approving projects” is shocking.
“You always work through the officials. The officials are the experts. The officials are impartial. And quite frankly, the officials provide that protection to the minister and the minister staff,” Milloy said.
“The fact that we have a situation where political staff are making these types of decisions just floors me.”
Labour minister defends fund
Piccini, who faced questions and accusations again on Wednesday, said organizations that received money from the fund are “doing incredible work” and he defended the fund.
Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini attends Question Period at the Ontario Legislature in Toronto on Tuesday, Nov, 28, 2023. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)
“Over 700,000 Ontarians have gone through the program, Speaker. We’ve seen 100,000 people gain employment within 60 days or less thanks to incredible training,” Piccini said.
“I am so disappointed … Not one question, Speaker, about the actual people we are training.”
In a social media post later on Wednesday, Piccini announced that more than $8.6 million from the fund will support women in the skilled trades.
Ford, meanwhile, dismissed the comments made by the opposition parties.
“I’m speechless right now, listening to these people that have never, ever run a lemonade stand in their life. They would bankrupt a lemonade stand, matter of fact,” Ford said.
“We have a strong plan. We’re going to continue moving forward, creating more opportunities for companies to invest.”