Ontario’s Auditor-General Shelley Spence says report found there was little rationale to explain why the high-ranked applicants were not chosen.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
The distribution of $1.3-billion in provincial funds for worker retraining was “not fair, transparent or accountable,” Ontario’s Auditor-General says, citing the approval of hundreds of millions of dollars for groups with lower scores on their applications while higher-ranked applicants were passed over.
In a special report released on Wednesday, Auditor-General Shelley Spence examined part of the Ontario government’s heavily promoted Skills Development Fund, which was launched in 2021 and doles out cash to unions, employers and other organizations. Premier Doug Ford and Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini are often on hand to announce the funding awards, flanked by unionized workers.
The audit found that more than half of the applications for the fund’s money, all approved directly by political staff in the Labour Minister’s office, had been ranked by ministry bureaucrats as “poor,” “low” or “medium” when measured against the program’s objectives and selection criteria, which include an applicant’s “organizational capacity” and “delivery plan.”
In all, these applicants received $742-million in grants. Meanwhile, the Auditor-General found, 670 applications ranked “high” by nonpolitical ministry staff were not given any funding at all.
The report says many applicants retained professional lobbyists, and 64 low- and medium-ranked applicants who had lobbied the minister’s office ended up with $126-million in funding. Ms. Spence also said 39 higher-ranked applicants had also retained lobbyists and received about $58-million in funding.
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Having the minister’s office pick applicants, while not always choosing those with the highest scores, “can create an appearance of real or potential preferential treatment by the Minister’s Office in its selection of applicants to fund,” the report says.
The fund is still up and running: This year, the government committed another $805-million for the next three years for training programs. A separate stream funds capital projects. The government says it has accepted all of the audit’s recommendations for tightening the program – but that final funding decisions will remain up to the Labour Minister.
Ontario NDP Opposition Leader Marit Stiles compared the findings to previous audits that exposed the failures of the Progressive Conservative government’s bid process for its Ontario Place site, and of its aborted plan to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt for a small group of connected developers.
She accused the Ford government of using the skills fund to help insiders.
The audit notes that some other provinces with similar programs, including Alberta and B.C., do not allow political staff to make funding decisions. Ms. Stiles said if she were Premier, the allocation of cash for skills training programs would be left to nonpolitical staff.
“Once you get those political fingers involved in those decisions, it is a recipe for corruption and that is what this looks like,” Ms. Stiles told reporters at the legislature.
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The report audit also says the minister’s office provided “inaccurate” explanations to bureaucrats as to why applicants were chosen. In five instances, the minister’s office justified its decisions by citing a high-rating application, even though ministry evaluators had in fact marked the grant-seeking group as low or medium.
“It is troubling,” Ms. Spence told reporters when asked about these discrepancies, adding that she recommends bureaucrats push back at political staff if explanations “don’t make sense” and ask why projects were selected.
Mr. Piccini, who appeared at a news conference on Wednesday via video link, defended the program, repeatedly telling reporters that the fund changes lives.
He did not apologize for favouring low-scoring applications, saying U.S. President Donald Trump has unleashed an assault on a number of sectors in the Canadian economy, and that the skills fund needed to be “able to prioritize those sectors and be responsive to our changing labour market needs.”
He cited two applications – one for a nonprofit in Whitby, Ont., to train workers with disabilities and another from the City of Mississauga for firefighter training programs – that scored low but were approved for the program regardless.
Speaking before the report was released publicly on Wednesday, Mr. Ford told reporters the fund was “one of the greatest programs” the government ever created. He said that it helped people “with disabilities that typically sit at home and collect a government cheque” find work.
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Mr. Piccini has served as Ontario’s Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development since September, 2023. Prior to that, Monte McNaughton held the role. Mr. McNaughton has since left government.
The report gives some examples of applications that ranked low but still received funding, though it does not identify the organizations involved. One applicant applied for training for just one person – themselves. The application was also ranked low, but the minister’s office approved it.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union recently raised concerns about the Skills Development Fund, saying it effectively diverts public money away from postsecondary institutions in favour of “unvetted” training programs.
The union is in the midst of tense labour negotiations on behalf of approximately 10,000 striking support staff at Ontario’s 24 public colleges, which it says the government has weakened by underfunding their existing training programs.
Construction unions such as the Labourers’ International Union of North America, long a booster of Mr. Ford, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have repeatedly received grants from the program for apprenticeships.
Other recipients include mining company Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls.
One of the fund’s recipients was subject to scrutiny in a legislative committee session last September.
Scale Hospitality – which owns a range of high-end restaurants in Toronto’s entertainment district, including Le Sélect Bistro and Miss Likklemore’s – received approximately $11-million from the fund, despite a late application and a low score, according to the transcript of a question-and-answer session between NDP MPP Jamie West and Mr. Piccini.
With reports from Vanmala Subramaniam
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to say the Ontario government has committed $805-million for the next three years for training programs. An earlier version said it committed $805-million a year for the next three years.