EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
The Ford government gave millions of tax dollars to a company with a Progressive Conservative Party vice-president, along with another group run by an unsuccessful PC candidate.
It provided funding to the groups through its Skills Development Fund (SDF), the increasingly scrutinized Ministry of Labour program that the auditor general recently found to be “not fair, transparent or accountable.”
The offices of Labour Minister David Piccini and his predecessor, Monte McNaughton, have chosen the recipients of over 1,000 SDF grants, which the ministry has given out since 2021 to pay about $1.3 billion to groups for training initiatives.
2iSolutions Inc. and the Niagara Home Builders’ Association have both received SDF grants, from both ministers’ offices.
In the years it received funding, according to its website, 2iSolutions’ “principal consultant-business analytics” was Tim Iqbal, who at the same time also belonged to the PC party executive as one of the party’s vice-presidents. Iqbal was listed on 2iSolutions’ website’s “meet our people” page until months ago.
Recipient lists published online by the Ministry of Labour, as well as other ministry data obtained through the freedom-of-information (FOI) system, show the labour minister’s offices have chosen to give 2iSolutions three Skills Development Fund grants. Under Piccini, the company has received about $1.75 million split between two grants, according to records obtained via a freedom-of-information request. At the time of publication, The Trillium did not have access to information showing how much it received in its first SDF grant, from when McNaughton was labour minister.
The Niagara Home Builders’ Association has received Skills Development Fund grants in each of the last four rounds. Chuck McShane has been the association’s CEO since late 2018, a few months after he ran for Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in that year’s general election. McShane received the second-most votes in the riding of Niagara Falls, losing to NDP MPP Wayne Gates.
Months after unsuccessfully running in the election that brought the PCs into power, Ford’s cabinet appointed McShane to the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, which he served on as a member for a few years.
The Niagara Home Builders’ Association has received upwards of $4 million from the Skills Development Fund, according to a combination of information from the Ministry of Labour, including its past statements and spending disclosures, and data obtained via FOI.
Before press time, neither 2iSolutions nor the Niagara Home Builders’ Association responded to questions The Trillium had emailed them about their SDF-funded training programs and their ties to the Ford government.
2iSolutions worked with a private, for-profit college to deliver its Skills Development Fund-supported program, while the Niagara Home Builders’ Association partnered with one of Ontario’s public colleges.
2iSolutions has partnered with the Toronto Innovation College. According to Ministry of Labour provided records, 2iSolutions received $888,000 from the fourth round of the SDF for a project that trained job seekers for “high-demand IT roles,” and $870,000 from the fifth round for training, certifications and job search support for “marginalized communities in Ontario.”
Toronto Innovation College’s website said the latest SDF grant to 2iSolutions helped it offer “100 per cent … completely FREE” training for Ontarians looking to access “high-quality, in-demand courses in fields like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data analytics, and more.”
Niagara College, one of Ontario’s 24 public colleges, has worked with the Niagara Home Builders’ Association to deliver its SDF-supported program. In past news releases, the home builders’ group and provincial government have said Labour Ministry funding has supported training construction workers.
In an April 2024 post on its website, Niagara College wrote that it and the Niagara Home Builders’ Association had by then trained “160 students to date” through its SDF-funded “Construction Skills” program. It also described the program’s highlights as including “eight weeks of hands-on learning and skill development in the School of Trades at Niagara College’s Welland Campus,” followed by “an eight-week paid work placement.”
In recent articles, The Trillium has detailed how tens of millions of other taxpayer-funded SDF grants have gone to organizations with ties to the Progressive Conservatives and Piccini specifically. Others have shown that hundreds of millions more have gone to groups involving PC-donor-led organizations, or which have hired lobbyists with close ties to the premier.
Auditor general Shelley Spence’s office released a report on the Skills Development Fund on Oct. 1, writing that it was not “fair, transparent or accountable.” She found that successive labour minister’s offices chose hundreds of proposals that ministry officials had given low and medium scores to, over those that non-partisan civil servants ranked higher.
Days after Spence’s office released its report, Piccini attended the Paris Fashion Week nuptials of a close friend who was the registered lobbyist for two groups that his office had approved over $8.5 million in SDF grants to.
Months before the premier put Piccini in charge of the Labour Ministry, at a time when he was Ontario’s environment minister, he had also been in pricey rinkside seats at a Toronto Maple Leafs game with a board director of one of the same companies. Piccini has since said he paid for his Paris trip and Leafs ticket.
Since MPPs returned to sitting at Queen’s Park this week, the Skills Development Fund controversy has been the dominant topic at the legislature.
Each question period since Monday, NDP and Liberal MPPs have peppered Piccini with questions about the funding program, recipients’ use of lobbyists and political donations or connections SDF-granted groups have made with him and his government colleagues. They’ve also called for his resignation, which Piccini has refused, saying he has the premier’s support. Ford has backed that up, defending the program as well and saying he has no plans to change it.
In defending the Skills Development Fund, both Ford and Piccini have frequently talked up the grant-giving program, with the premier often touting the “hundreds of thousands” of people who’ve received training thanks to the projects it’s supported, which the labour minister has said are “changing lives.”