{"id":194438,"date":"2025-10-07T03:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T03:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/194438\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T03:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T03:49:11","slug":"skill-development-fund-grants-went-to-multiple-clients-of-lobbyists-with-ties-to-ford-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/194438\/","title":{"rendered":"Skill Development Fund grants went to multiple clients of lobbyists with ties to Ford government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clients of lobbyists with ties to Ontario\u2019s premier and his office snagged at least $100 million in Skills Development Fund grants, according to an analysis of the data by CTV News.<\/p>\n

The lion\u2019s share of those funds went to a lobbying firm run by the same man who managed the election campaign that brought Premier Doug Ford into office, the records show.<\/p>\n

\u201c$100 million going to companies that paid lobbyists that are connected to government insiders, there\u2019s something wrong there. Something doesn\u2019t smell right,\u201d said the opposition NDP\u2019s leader, Marit Stiles, in an interview in the Ontario legislature on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stiles said she approved of the goals of the $2.5 billion Skills Development Fund (SDF), which was meant to encourage training of workers to better handle economic headwinds presented by the pandemic and U.S. tariffs.<\/p>\n

But she said handing out that money should have been decided based on objective parameters, not by political staffers who face a potential conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I see happening over and over again is the premier and his government treating this fund like their personal piggy bank,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a bombshell report last week<\/a>, Ontario\u2019s Auditor General found political staff were often ignoring the advice of non-partisan bureaucrats to make funding decisions in the SDF, with some $126 million going to firms represented by lobbyists.<\/p>\n

While the Ontario government has made public the names of the recipients of the grants, it has not published tables of how much each grant recipient has received, and the auditor general didn\u2019t specify.<\/p>\n

CTV News combed through previous funding announcements as well as records in the province\u2019s published detailed schedule of payments to match funding to recipients. <\/p>\n

The list could be incomplete, and requests to the provincial government to ensure its completeness were not responded to by deadline.<\/p>\n

One of those recipients was commercial baker FGF Brands Inc, who was featured in a video with the premier on his government YouTube account as he toured their largely mechanized production facility.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s public accounts indicates that company got about $1 million in the 2024-2025 year to train its staff. The company didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment from CTV News.<\/p>\n

Records from the province\u2019s Integrity Commissioner said FGF Brands hired Rubicon Strategies to approach the provincial government about a possible SDF grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssist FGF Brands Inc with application to the Ontario Skills Development Fund programs to upskill and train FGF\u2019s diverse workforce,\u201d said a note in the file.<\/p>\n

Rubicon Strategy is owned by Kory Teneycke, who ran Ford\u2019s election campaigns in 2022 and 2025. <\/p>\n

\"\"Kory Teneycke Kory Teneycke is the CEO of Rubicon Strategy. (CTV News) <\/p>\n

CTV News identified 12 organizations that were represented by Rubicon to secure SDF grants, for a total of about $85 million. No one from Rubicon responded to an email from CTV News by deadline.<\/p>\n

Atlas Strategic Advisors represented at least two firms that together raised approximately $17 million in grants, the records show. That lobbying company is owned by Amin Massoudi, who worked in the premier\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Massoudi did respond to CTV News, saying his firm didn\u2019t \u201csecure\u201d government funding but instead worked with clients to achieve aims.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs government relations consultants, our primary role is ensuring our clients are submitting, complete, criteria compliant and well informed applications that align with public policy priorities,\u201d Massoudi wrote. \u201cWe work with our clients through the rigorous open processes required to access government funding, while putting forward the most compelling case possible.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThese efforts alone do not guarantee any result,\u201d he continued. \u201cAttempting to connect client registrations to funding outcomes is an inaccurate way to measure what firms like ours do, and risks misleading readers about the reality of how public policy and funding decisions are made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the Auditor General\u2019s oversight and believe Ontarians benefit when programs are reviewed and improved. Legitimate scrutiny helps strengthen public confidence in these important and highly impactful government programs,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ford, Massoudi FILE – Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford and his Deputy Chief of Staff Amin Massoudi, right, return from a private chat following a campaign event in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., on Friday, June 1, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Frank Gunn <\/p>\n

Another recipient of the grants, King Animal Hospital, didn\u2019t tell CTV News how much they received in grants, but CEO Tracy Jones said in an email the money was used to train their veterinarians by blending \u201cclassroom instruction with hands-on learning in emergency and trauma care, critical care (ICU) and essential soft skill such as conflict resolution and compassionate communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are addressing a critical workforce shortage requiring specific critical care skills, reducing turnover, and strengthening the province\u2019s animal healthcare system,\u201d Jones said in an email to CTV News.<\/p>\n

The animal hospital was represented by ONpoint Strategy Group. Among the principals of that firm is Nico Fidani Diker, who worked in the Ontario premier\u2019s office before joining the firm. ONpoint didn\u2019t respond to questions from CTV News by deadline.<\/p>\n

The current Minister of Labour, David Piccini, who oversees the Skills Development Fund, told a news conference last week that he accepted the auditor general\u2019s recommendations, but didn\u2019t commit to having non-partisan staff make funding decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important and it is changing lives, and it\u2019s changing lives for the better, which is why we\u2019ve seen such incredible support for this program all across Ontario,\u201d Piccini said then.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ontario Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development David Piccini speaks at a press conference in Kitchener, Ont., on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Sammy Kogan Ontario Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development David Piccini speaks at a press conference in Kitchener, Ont., on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Sammy Kogan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clients of lobbyists with ties to Ontario\u2019s premier and his office snagged at least $100 million in Skills…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-194438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}