The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating a company that received more than $40-million from the Ontario government, including from a skills training fund that the province’s Auditor-General found was granting money in ways that were unfair and unaccountable.
The force confirmed Monday that its anti-rackets branch has launched an investigation into the company, Keel Digital Solutions, which owns an online counselling platform called Get A-Head.
“The OPP Anti-Rackets Branch has completed its review and will be proceeding with an investigation. At this time, we cannot release any details or speculate on how long the investigation will take,” OPP spokeswoman Gosia Puzio said in an e-mail on Monday.
Premier Doug Ford’s government last month said it had referred “suspicious activity” to the police, related to transfer payments to the company, after a forensic audit of the organization.
The OPP previously said it was contacted on Nov. 6 by the Treasury Board Secretariat’s forensic investigations team, which was concerned about transfer payments to Get A-Head from the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security.
Company embroiled in skills fund controversy received Ontario cash last month during audit
The business offers what it describes as an “AI-driven” virtual mental-health counselling platform for students and police officers.
Keel has also received $7.5-million from the province’s marquee $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund, which is overseen by Labour Minister David Piccini. His connections to the company have come under scrutiny.
The fund, which disburses 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 “not fair, transparent or accountable.” The report found that political staff in the minister’s office approved hundreds of millions of dollars for groups with lower scores on their applications, while higher-ranked applicants were passed over. The audit also questioned the use of lobbyists to secure funding.
Jay Fischbach, chief operating officer of Keel Digital Solutions, said in a statement Monday that the company has complied with all laws and contract obligations.
“We welcome the OPP and will be completely transparent and cooperative. We look forward to the government’s apology at the end of this; and we remain focused on facilitating mental health supports for the province’s most vulnerable communities,” he said.
Company says Ontario is scapegoating it to deflect from Skills Development Fund controversy
Ahad Bandealy, Keel Digital Solutions’ 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 “red flags” that emerged during the audit process.
The company has accused the government of trying to make it a “scapegoat” to deflect from controversy over the province’s worker training fund.
Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ford’s office, declined to comment Monday and referred The Globe to a previous statement.
Ms. Jensen said last month that a routine audit in 2023 raised concerns about the company, leading to a comprehensive forensic audit. The government said it referred the matter to the OPP within 24 hours of receiving the results.
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 the $7.5-million in grants from the skills fund, approved by Mr. Piccini’s office, starting with $2.72-million in 2024.
The initial audit in 2023 was related to previous funding from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.
Get A-Head successfully applied for skills funding between August and December of 2023.
Company that received millions from Ontario calls for release of audit referred to police
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles on Monday repeated her calls for Mr. Ford to fire Mr. Piccini for what she called “gross mismanagement” of the Skills Development Fund.
“Doug Ford’s Minister of Favours has spent seven weeks dodging responsibility and throwing out excuses,” Ms. Stiles said in an e-mailed statement. “Now, we’ve got yet another police investigation connected to this scandal-ridden government.”
She also cited links between Mr. Piccini and Keel, first reported by Queen’s Park news website The Trillium.
Mr. Piccini attended the Paris wedding last fall of the company’s lobbyist, Michael Rudderham.
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.
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.
Mr. Piccini has said he paid his own way for both the game and the wedding.
Liberal MPP John Fraser, his party’s leader in the legislature, said Keel should not have received any more government money once it was flagged for the forensic audit.
He said the questions being raised about connections between the Ford government and grant recipients, and their lobbyists, were serious – and remarked that the OPP probe follows an existing RCMP investigation into the Greenbelt affair. The national police force launched an investigation in October, 2023, into the Ford government’s decision to open up the protected Greenbelt lands around the Greater Toronto Area to development.
“It’s a serious situation that the government’s got two active investigations by two different police forces around things like anti-racketeering and white-collar crime,” Mr. Fraser told reporters at Queen’s Park.
“We have a government that doesn’t think that anybody’s noticing what they’re doing.”