referred \u201csuspicious activity\u201d <\/a>to the police related to transfer payments to the company, after a forensic audit of the organization.<\/p>\nThe OPP previously said it was contacted on Nov. 6 by the Treasury Board Secretariat\u2019s forensic investigations team, which was concerned about transfer payments to Get A-Head from the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security.<\/p>\n
The business offers an \u201cAI-driven\u201d virtual mental-health counselling platform for students and police officers. It was acquired by a company called Keel Digital Solutions in 2022.<\/p>\n
Keel has also received millions from the province\u2019s marquee $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund, which is overseen by Labour Minister David Piccini. His connections to the company have come under scrutiny.<\/p>\n
The fund, which hands out cash to unions, companies and non-profits for training programs, has been under a microscope after Ontario Auditor-General Shelley Spence concluded in a report in October that the distribution of $1.3-billion in grants from it was \u201cnot fair, transparent or accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jay Fischbach, chief operating officer of Keel Digital Solutions, said in a statement the company remains steadfast that it has complied with all laws and contract obligations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome the OPP and will be completely transparent and cooperative. We look forward to the government\u2019s apology at the end of this; and we remain focused on facilitating mental health supports for the province\u2019s most vulnerable communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ahad Bandealy, Keel Digital Solutions\u2019 chief digital officer, told The Globe and Mail last month that the company had not been informed of the OPP referral nor told of any \u201cred flags\u201d that emerged during the audit process. <\/p>\n
The company has accused the government of trying to make it a \u201cscapegoat\u201d to deflect from controversy over the province\u2019s worker training fund.<\/p>\n
Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ford\u2019s office, declined to comment on Monday and referred The Globe to the government\u2019s previous statement. <\/p>\n
Ms. Jensen said last month that a routine audit in 2023 raised concerns about the company, leading to a comprehensive forensic audit.<\/p>\n
The government said it referred the matter to the OPP within 24 hours of receiving the results.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ford\u2019s chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, also sent an e-mail last month to all Ontario government chiefs of staff and other employees working in the Premier\u2019s office warning them not to have any contact with the company.<\/p>\n
According to government records, Get A-Head received $32.74-million in funding from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities from 2020 to 2025, as well as $1.85-million from the Ministry of Health. It also was awarded $7.5-million in grants approved by Mr. Piccini\u2019s office from the skills fund, starting with $2.72-million in 2024.<\/p>\n
An initial audit conducted in 2023 would have been related to previous funding from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.<\/p>\n
Get A-Head had only successfully applied for skills funding between August and December of 2023.<\/p>\n
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles on Monday repeated her calls for Mr. Ford to fire Mr. Piccini for what she called \u201cgross mismanagement\u201d of the Skills Development Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoug Ford\u2019s Minister of Favours has spent seven weeks dodging responsibility and throwing out excuses,\u201d Ms. Stiles said in an e-mailed statement. \u201cNow, we\u2019ve got yet another police investigation connected to this scandal-ridden government.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also cited links between Mr. Piccini and Keel, first reported by Queen\u2019s Park news website The Trillium.<\/p>\n
Mr. Piccini attended the Paris wedding last fall of the company\u2019s lobbyist, Michael Rudderham. <\/p>\n
In 2023, Mr. Piccini, who was not Labour Minister at the time, sat in a rinkside seat at a Toronto Maple Leafs game with Peter Zakarow, a director of Keel, The Trillium reported. <\/p>\n
Mr. Zakarow said in an e-mail to The Globe last month that he was an independent board member and has never spoken to the minister or anyone else in the government about the company.<\/p>\n
Mr. Piccini has said he paid his own way for both the game and the wedding.<\/p>\n
Liberal MPP John Fraser, his party\u2019s leader in the legislature, said Keel should not have received any more government money once it was flagged for the forensic audit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a government that doesn\u2019t think that anybody\u2019s noticing what they\u2019re doing.\u201d <\/p>\n
With a report from Jeff Gray in Toronto<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ontario Province Police has launched an investigation into a company that received more than $40-million from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-333324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333324","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=333324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}