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TORONTO \u2014 Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini\u2019s office has been heavily involved in selecting projects that get funded under a $2.5-billion skills training program and has doled out money to applicants ranked low by bureaucrats without documenting reasons, the auditor general has found.<\/p>\n
The Skills Development Fund gives money to organizations for projects that help hire, train or retrain workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than half of the projects Piccini\u2019s office gave funding to were ranked by bureaucrats as poor, low or medium against the program\u2019s goals and criteria, with those projects receiving about $742 million over the first five rounds of funding, Shelley Spence found.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is troubling,\u201d she said at a press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we recommended that the staffers take a look at the explanations, and if they don\u2019t make sense, go back to the minister\u2019s office and say, \u2018Hey \u2026 I\u2019m not understanding why this was selected.’\u201d<\/p>\n
The auditor also found that 64 low- and medium-ranked projects that Piccini\u2019s office chose for funding had hired registered lobbyists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said it is \u201ctextbook preferential treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that galls me more than when governments have abused the taxpayers\u2019 trust, the people\u2019s trust,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Piccini said the fund is open to everyone and has supported more than 1,000 projects that have helped more than 100,000 people \u201cachieve employment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already begun implementing the auditor general\u2019s recommendations through more rigorous tracking of clients, and ongoing evaluation criteria updates as a part of our efforts to improve this life-changing program that is training workers in every corner of the province,\u201d Michel Figueredo wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
Spence found that in the first two rounds of funding, Piccini\u2019s office did not give a documented reason as to why it chose 388 projects that received a total of $479 million.<\/p>\n
Similar programs in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador do not have ministers\u2019 offices making specific funding decisions, Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 The Canadian Press<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n