Doug Ford's labour minister ignores questions about jobs data on Skills Development Fund

In question period Monday, Piccini refused to respond to New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles’ question after she demanded a breakdown in the job numbers.

“How many people were actually connected to full-time employment?” Stiles said. 

Piccini didn’t give an answer. 

“I want to talk about another important fund,” he said.

Shouting across the aisle, Stiles said, “They don’t have an answer and that’s because they don’t track it!

“That’s the truth … Two and a half billion tax dollars — your dollars — and this minister can’t show the results of his work.”

The fund — linked to Tory lobbyists and groups that endorsed Ford in the February campaign — has trained roughly 700,000 people, the government says.

Premier Doug Ford and Piccini boast that the $1.5 billion spent since the fund began in 2021 has led to “life changing” jobs. Of those, some 14 per cent would have gone on to get jobs — of any kind — within 60 days of training.

The Tories have been defending the fund since early October when a special report by auditor general Shelley Spence criticized the ministry’s funding decisions — noting that $126 million went to 64 organizations that used lobbyists to push applications ranked “low and medium.” She found that 670 applications ranked “high” were rejected.

The process, Spence’s report said, was “not fair, transparent or accountable.”

On Monday, Spence told the Star that the fund’s employment numbers are not currently on the list of audits for 2025-2026. Her office, she said, does not do audits at the request of political parties. 

“If asked by the Standing Committee of the Public Accounts I would consider doing a special audit,” Spence said, in an email. The committee is, however, dominated by Ford’s MPPs. 

With a labour minister dogged by controversy, the Liberals are now calling for an investigation by the integrity commissioner. MPP Stephanie Smyth (Toronto—St. Paul’s) asked the commissioner’s office to investigate whether Piccini violated the Members’ Integrity Act for “conflicts of interest, improper influence, or the use of insider information.”

Last week, Liberal MPP John Fraser (Ottawa South) called for a forensic audit on the missing jobs data. Yesterday, Fraser directed his questions at Ford.

“The premier and the minister claimed that 100,000 people got jobs out of this program. There’s only one problem: There’s no real data,” Fraser said.

“Will the premier do the right thing and open the books on the Skills Development Fund so Ontarians can get to the bottom of this?”

Ford stared at Fraser but Tory MPP Mohamed Firin (York—South Weston) answered in his stead, blaming the Liberals for ignoring jobs during their years in power. Ford banged on his desk, in support. 

“So, one more time,” Fraser said, “I’ll ask the premier; maybe he’ll answer my question: Will the premier open the books so we can have a forensic audit on the Skills Development Fund?” 

Ford didn’t answer.