Premier Doug Ford let his labour minister take questions about whether or not he should be fired

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.

Ontario’s labour minister was in the hot seat Monday when MPPs returned to Queen’s Park from summer break, facing repeated calls to resign over the growing Skills Development Fund controversy.

David Piccini is the minister in charge of the $2.5-billion fund used to pay unions, companies and other organizations to train workers for the job market, in a way the province’s auditor general recently criticized in a scathing report as “not fair, transparent or accountable.”

Asked repeatedly in question period if he’d fire his labour minister, Premier Doug Ford did not respond. He sat stone-faced in the chamber as Piccini fielded questions about whether or not he was in a conflict of interest for doling out millions from the fund to groups connected to his party, and connected to him personally.

“What the premier should be saying to the minister is, ‘You’re fired,’” said Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser in one exchange.

If Ford doesn’t fire Piccini, it means that he believes everything that happened with the Skills Development Fund is OK, Fraser charged, adding “because the minister is clearly in conflict of interest. He’s admitted it. He’s used his influence to further his friends’ benefit.” 

This outlet revealed that Piccini recently attended the Parisian wedding of a lobbyist whose clients received $8.5 million from the fund, and went to a Toronto Maple Leafs game in exclusive, expensive seats with one of those clients months before he took over as labour minister and awarded the company funding.

Marit Stiles, leader of the official Opposition NDP, also referred to that reporting. After decrying the province’s high unemployment figures, she claimed Piccini “seems to have other priorities on his mind.”

“So my question to the minister of labour is this: How was Paris?” she continued.

Piccini didn’t answer any of these questions, but touted the benefits of the job training paid for by the fund.

The Trillium has also revealed that the government has awarded tens of millions of dollars to clients of lobbyists connected to the premier and his nephew, including more than $100 million to clients of Rubicon Strategy, the lobbying firm owned by the premier’s campaign manager.

Some recipients have been private companies with other Ford government connections, including a law firm run by “friend” of the premier who now chairs the Metrolix board, and an upscale veterinary hospital founded by a family that’s given donations to Progressive Conservatives totalling over $80,000 since 2017.

The Trillium also revealed that a recipient of millions of dollars in provincial training has been using the money to prepare people to work in entertainment clubs run by an associate of the Ford family, with whom the premier announced plans for a sole-sourced deal to provide hospitality and entertainment services at Ontario Place before walking back the decision following negative news coverage.

Ford said little in question period, except for one answer to Stiles’ first question about the province’s “jobs disaster.”

He said he’d urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to “hit back” against U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade aggressions. 

“It’s not the leader of the Opposition, or the opposition, it’s our party, right here, that is hitting back against President Trump,” Ford said.

—With files from Jack Hauen and Charlie Pinkerton