‘Get their hands off that fund’: Ontario labour minister faces third day of resignation calls

NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Labour Minister David Piccini debate an alleged conflict of interest in the $2.5 billion Skills Development Fund.

The governing Progressive Conservative party cancelled a fundraiser on Wednesday evening, and Ontario’s labour minister didn’t invite the media to an $8.6 million Skills Development Fund announcement as the Doug Ford government tries to weather the scandal around the fund.

Opposition parties called for the resignation of Minister David Piccini for the third day in a row as they highlighted concerns of conflict of interest in how the $2.5 billion fund is doled out.

“The minister should be fired over this. He should be cancelled, just like his fundraiser,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles told reporters at the legislature.

“The fund is not the problem. It’s the politicians. The premier and his ministers need to get their hands off that fund. It’s not their personal piggy bank,” she said.

• Ontario labour minister faces resignation calls amid discord between public, private sector unions

During Question Period, Piccini fired back with claims that donors to other parties have received money as well, and the fund is making a difference.

“A near-doubling of women registering for apprenticeships. Those are the results. We’re going to keep working hard to get the job done,” he said.

It’s difficult to find out the correct proportion, as the government has not released a table of all funds.

The Skills Development Fund has been a signature policy of the Ford government, which aims to fund projects to retrain workers amidst the economic headwinds of U.S. tariffs.

Ontario’s auditor general found in early October that some $750 million had been given out at the behest of political staff, even though nonpartisan bureaucrats had ranked those projects low.

CTV News has profiled recipients who donated thousands to the governing PC Party, and that upwards of $100 million was given via lobbyists with connections to the premier’s office, and upwards of $100 million went to unions or trade groups that endorsed Ford.

• Ontario labour minister denies Skills Development Fund used to reward friends, political allies with millions in grants

Wednesday’s announcement was described by the government in a news release as an $8.6 million grant to help 1,700 women across the GTA access skilled training.

Piccini appeared in a “round table” to ask questions of participants at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training centre on Lawrence Avenue in Toronto, said the IBEW’s business manager, Lee Caprio.

“This SDF funding is actually changing a lot of careers. We’ve produced 13 cohorts plus one more, plus one indigenous one in Curve Lake, so we’re talking about well over 200 new apprenticeship careers we’re taking with this training,” Caprio said.

Caprio confirmed that he donated about $8,000 to the PC Party in the last five years. But he said he didn’t believe that had anything to do with the grant being handed out.

“I put in so much work with my team to try and get a great application. And I believe the strength of the application is what got it past the goalposts.”

Records show that someone matching the name of Caprio’s vice-president, Jeff Irons, gave total donations of about $15,000 to the NDP over the past five years.

Some $750,000 was given to the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council. Several of its affiliates endorsed Doug Ford in the last election, though a spokesperson for the council said it doesn’t take a political position.

“As a building trades council, we do not endorse any political party,” the spokesperson said.

Another recipient, Enercare, got $186,170 to deliver eight boot camps for 240 young women in Grades 7 to 12.

Ontario’s lobbyist registry shows the company hired a lobbyist who disclosed the subject matter of her lobbying was “consumer services, labour, training and skills development.”

Piccini has found himself personally under scrutiny. He was photographed at a hockey game with a director of a company that would go on to make millions. The NDP has complained that he went to the wedding of a lobbyist for that company.

“He shouldn’t be in glass seats; he should be in the penalty box,” said Ontario Liberal leader John Fraser.

The PC Party had advertised a $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser in Toronto for Piccini in North York. It was called off for a “personal commitment,” Piccini told reporters Tuesday.

It’s not clear how many tickets had been sold, but the loss of it may sting: public filings with Elections Ontario show that recent fundraisers for Piccini had netted his constituency association upwards of $50,000.