Doug Ford’s latest scandal is a doozy! Ford’s government has been caught red-handed giving millions away to unqualified personal friends and relatives of government ministers.

The Skills Development Fund, a pool of $2.5 billion, is ostensibly meant to support worker training in in-demand sectors. Ford is using this lots of this money as a slush fund, handing out millions to people only because they have personal connections to the party.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work. Companies submit applications for funding, then the government ranks these applications internally according to formalized criteria, and funding is doled out based on these scores, which the companies never see. The higher the ranking, the higher and likelier the funding. Not complicated.

Except the Toronto Star acquired the government’s own data they meant to keep secret, covering the first four months of the SDF, and the picture is ugly. 26 recipients who scored 50% or lower on their application received over $36 million. Any grant over $5-million needs to be personally signed off by the Labour Minister, David Piccini, who the NDP is pushing to get fired for his role in this. When a dubious application got funding, the reasoning provided was “minister rationale,” so in their mind, Piccini owns this.

Sometimes the applications weren’t even submitted with detailed plans or budgets, but Ford’s government still approved their funding requests anyway. Let’s look at some of the dodgiest applications to get a sense of why this seems like pure, outright corruption scandal:

The church that married a Doug Ford cabinet minister received more than $2.8 million from the government, including two SDF grants.

The gurdwara that endorsed Ford in the election received $950,000. Three high-ranking members of the gurdwara supported a PC fundraiser months before the election.

Postmedia, the parent company of the National Post and Toronto Sun owned by a US-hedge fund, received over $1 million, supposedly to train staff in Artificial Intelligence

A Brampton e-scooter company, Scooty, whose application received a failing grade of 42, also received $1 million to teach 100 workers about the “transformative impact of AI in fintech.” Scooty hired David DiPaul, a former Ford staffer, as a lobbyist to “identify and assist Scooty in navigating various grant and funding opportunities that may be available for a growing Ontario business.” Sure enough, even though ministry staff said the company has “no prior experience,” a budget that “needs to be reexamined,” and that their application has “more risks than strengths,” the government still approved the funding.

The Carpenters’ Council of Ontario supported Doug Ford last election, and they received $14 million though their proposal score was only 52%.

The International Union of Operating Engineers also openly supported Doug Ford last election, and they received about $7.5 million, though their score was 43. The union denies there was any quid pro quo, and said they received the funding before endorsing Ford.

Ontario’s auditor general has called this process “troubling,” noting that as many as 64 projects ranked low or medium that the government chose to fund had hired lobbyists, creating the appearance of “real or preferential treatment.” No kidding.

Ontario used to leave impartial civil servants to allocate this funding, not a hand-picked MPP who has “minister’s rationale” authority. This very much creates the impression of a system where Ford’s government is giving money to friends and relatives and those with inside connections. It’s the same MO as the greenbelt scandal and Ontario Place.

The SDF scandal started weeks ago after a couple of high-profile incidents. One Ford-connected lobbyist for Keel Digital Solutions, which has received SDF funding twice, had a very expensive wedding in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe attended by Labour Minister David Piccini, the same duo pictured together sitting front row at a 2023 Leaf game (Willy Nylander scored a beauty in OT to help the Buds win 6-5 over Florida).

Doug Ford’s Skills Development Fund Giveaway and ‘Minister’s Rationale’

Doug Ford’s latest scandal is a doozy! Ford’s government has been caught red-handed giving millions away to unqualified personal friends and relatives of government ministers.

The Skills Development Fund, a pool of $2.5 billion, is ostensibly meant to support worker training in in-demand sectors. It appears that Ford is using this lots of this money as a slush fund, handing millions out to people only because they have personal connections to the party.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work. Companies submit applications for funding, then the government ranks these applications internally according to formalized criteria, and funding is doled out based on these scores, which the companies never see. The higher the ranking, the higher and the likelier the funding. Not complicated.

Except the Toronto Star acquired the government’s own data they meant to keep secret, covering the first four months of the SDF, and the picture described here is ugly. 26 recipients who scored 50% or lower on their application received over $36 million. Any grant over $5-million needs to be personally signed off by the Labour Minister, David Piccini, who the NDP is pushing to get fired for his role in this. When a dubious application got funding, the reasoning provided was “minister rationale,” so in their mind, Piccini owns this.

Sometimes the applications weren’t even submitted with detailed plans or budgets, but Ford’s government approved their funding requests anyway. Let’s look at some of the dodgiest applications to get a sense of why this seems like pure, outright corruption scandal.

The church that married a Doug Ford cabinet minister received more than $2.8 million from the government, including two SDF grants.

The gurdwara that endorsed Ford in the election received $950,000. Three high-ranking members of the gurdwara supported a PC fundraiser months before the election.

Postmedia, the parent company of the National Post and Toronto Sun owned by a US-hedge fund, received over $1 million to train staff in AI.

A Brampton e-scooter company, Scooty, whose application received a failing grade of 42 also received $1 million to teach 100 workers about the “transformative impact of AI in fintech.” Scooty hired David DiPaul, a former Ford staffer, as a lobbyist to “identify and assist Scooty in navigating various grant and funding opportunities that may be available for a growing Ontario business.” Sure enough, even though ministry staff said the company has “no prior experience,” a budget that “needs to be reexamined,” and said their application has “more risks than strengths,” the government approved the funding.

The Carpenters’ Council of Ontario supported Doug Ford last election, and they received $14 million though their proposal score was only 52%.

The International Union of Operating Engineers also openly supported Doug Ford last election, and they received about $7.5 million, though their score was 43. The union denies there was any quid pro quo, and they say they received the funding before endorsing Ford.

Ontario’s auditor general has called this process “troubling,” noting that as many as 64 projects ranked low or medium that the government chose to fund had hired lobbyists, creating the appearance of “real or preferential treatment.” No kidding.

Ontario used to leave it to impartial civil servants to allocate this funding, not a hand-picked MPP who has “minister’s rationale” authority. This very much creates the impression of a system where Ford’s government is giving money to friends and relatives and those with inside connections. It’s the same MO as the greenbelt scandal and Ontario Place.

This started weeks ago after a couple of high-profile incidents. One Ford-connected lobbyist for Keel Digital Solutions, which has received SDF funding twice, had a very expensive wedding in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe David Piccini attended, the same duo pictured together sitting front row at a 2023 Leaf game (Willy Nylander scored a beauty in OT to help the Buds win 6-5 over Florida).

The NDP is adamant that they believe in the idea of the program, which is meant to help retrain, retain, and generally help businesses grow. The NDP have called Piccini a “dark cloud hanging over the Doug Ford government.” True, but Doug Ford is the weather system. I’m not sure why they’d target Piccini, not Ford, especially considering that Piccini’s predecessor Monte McNaughton also doled out millions in Skills Development Funds to dubious people close to him, including his wife’s colleague, before ducking out of politics.

David Piccini isn’t the mastermind behind this.

Even this Skills Development Funds scandal comes amid the wake of another possibly larger scandal. Doug Ford’s office referred a forensic audit to the OPP over concerns that a company, Keel Digital Solutions, received millions in public dollars from more than one ministry.

The OPP Anti-Rackets Branch is assessing it now to determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted. Note, the OPP recused itself from the ongoing criminal investigation into Doug Ford’s handling of the Greenbelt scandal, passing it onto the RCMP instead.

Doug Ford has been caught giving government money to weak applicants with inside connections. That’s not in dispute. Whether Ford can outrun these scandals, and whether these scandals are actually crimes, are the only things left to determine.

David Piccini isn’t the mastermind behind this.

Even this Skills Development Funds scandal comes amid the wake of another possibly larger scandal. Doug Ford’s office referred a forensic audit to the OPP over concerns that a company, Keel Digital Solutions, received millions in public dollars from more than one ministry.

The OPP Anti-Rackets Branch is assessing it now to determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted. Note, the OPP recused itself from the ongoing criminal investigation into Doug Ford’s handling of the Greenbelt scandal, passing it onto the RCMP instead.

Doug Ford has been caught giving government money to weak applicants with inside connections. That’s not in dispute. Whether Ford can outrun these scandals, and whether these scandals are actually crimes, are the only things left to determine.