EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
More than half of the taxpayer-funded grants the Ford government handed out in the latest round of its marquee worker-training program went to groups led by donors to the Progressive Conservative party.
Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of the $345 million in funds that Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini’s office chose to give out through the fifth round of the Skills Development Fund (SDF) went to these PC donor-led organizations, according to a Trillium analysis.
These groups received 56 per cent of the individual SDF grants awarded through the fifth round of the program, which the province’s auditor general recently described as “not fair, transparent or accountable.”
The Trillium obtained the list of 246 organizations that received grants from the fifth round of the Skills Development Fund through the freedom-of-information system. At least $1.3 million in political contributions to Progressive Conservative party causes have, since 2014, come from individuals with names matching the leaders of 137 of those groups.
Asked at the legislature on Monday about the majority of round five funding going to groups led by PC donors, Piccini said, “What I say is that we're supporting meaningful training opportunities.”
In light of the auditor's findings and reports by The Trillium and other media detailing numerous ways PC donors, endorsers and connected individuals have benefited from the Skills Development Fund, opposition parties have labelled it a "slush fund" and called for Piccini to step down. On Monday, he said he had no plans to resign.
“No, I'm not,” he said. “I'm focused on workers and their career pathways.”
A spokesperson for Piccini declined to answer specific questions sent by email, saying the minister’s answers during his media scrum stand.
Top recipient hosted $120k fundraiser for labour minister
The largest grant from the fifth round of the Skills Development Fund was $14 million to the Carpenters’ Regional Council.
Months earlier, on May 16, 2024, the carpenters’ union hosted a fundraiser in Woodbridge, Ont. that banked the labour minister’s riding association almost $120,000, its financial filings to Elections Ontario show.
Piccini and “special guest Doug Ford” were expected at the $1,000-a-ticket event, according to its description in the Northumberland—Peterborough South PC association’s financial filings.
Many of the 122 tickets sold to the fundraising dinner were bought by Carpenters’ Regional Council executives, board members or staff, or members of its affiliates, The Trillium confirmed based on information in financial filings.
Contributions to MPPs’ riding associations are largely used to bankroll election campaigns.
The Ministry of Labour later accepted applications for the fifth round of Skills Development Fund grants from late July until mid-October of last year.
On Jan. 24, 2025, the premier’s office announced that the Carpenters’ Regional Council would receive $14 million from the SDF’s fifth round, plus another $13 million through the program’s capital stream. The union published a news release celebrating the “unprecedented” amount of funding it received.
Days later, Ford called the provincial election early. One week before the Feb. 27 voting day, the Carpenters’ Regional Council announced that ”for the first time ever” it was endorsing Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives.
Auditor general Shelley Spence’s SDF report from earlier this month revealed that the minister’s office, under Piccini as well as his predecessor Monte McNaughton, has chosen specific funding recipients. The auditor’s office also found hundreds of instances of the labour minister’s office passing over applicants that non-partisan Labour Ministry officials gave high scores to, in favour of lower-ranked proposals.
Piccini has since said he personally helped choose which groups got SDF grants.
Carpenters’ Regional Council president Tom Cardinal said in a statement that his union works “with governments across all levels, regardless of party affiliation” on issues that matter to its members.
“The funding we have received through the Skills Development Fund is a direct result of our proven track record of delivering industry-led training and positive outcomes of helping hardworking Ontarians find meaningful employment,” he said, adding that more than 1,000 people have taken part in the union’s SDF programs.
Cardinal said his union supports the program “because we have seen firsthand the impact it has had on people's lives.”
On Monday, Piccini told reporters he was not involved in any quid-pro-quo deals and did not use public funds to get endorsements from labour groups.
“No, I'm supporting meaningful training opportunities that's going to put folks to work,” he said.
He did not answer reporters’ questions about whether he would continue to hand-pick SDF recipients.
Millions of tax dollars go to PC donors, endorsers
Of the 10 organizations that received the largest grants from round five of the Skills Development Fund, eight are led, in whole or in part, by people who have given money to the PC party, according to The Trillium’s analysis. The other two endorsed the PCs ahead of this year’s provincial election — as did 30 other round five recipients.
One such donor-led group is Get A-Head Inc., which was given a $4.8 million grant in round five, the eighth-highest out of 246 recipients. Months before he became labour minister, Piccini attended a Toronto Maple Leafs game in glass seats with a director of that company. Earlier this month, the labour minister attended the Parisian wedding of Get A-Head’s lobbyist.
Piccini has since said he personally paid for both outings.
On Monday, the labour minister did not answer a question about whether he would bar lobbyists from being involved with the Skills Development Fund.
“We have a very robust (lobbyist) registry that's public,” he said.
A significant number of Skills Development Fund recipients have lobbyists with ties to the PCs. That trend continued in round five. Rubicon Strategy, the lobby firm owned by PC campaign manager Kory Teneycke, had nine clients that received grants from this round, including the Carpenters’ Regional Council.
One of those clients was Sal-Dan General Contractors, which received $3 million to train its employees.
The construction company’s president, Salvatore “Sam” Biasucci and his wife, along with his son and company CEO Joey Biasucci, and his wife, donated nearly $50,000 between 2017 and 2025 — including five donations to Piccini’s riding association in 2023 and 2024, totalling $11,300, and a $956 donation from Joey to then-labour minister Monte McNaughton’s riding association in 2023.
Other members of the Biasucci family, who are not involved in the business, donated almost $17,000 between 2022 and 2024, including two donations to McNaughton's riding association in 2022.
Salvatore Biasucci told The Trillium he hired Rubicon, the PC campaign manager’s firm, to lobby on his company’s behalf after failing to secure SDF funding in two previous rounds.
“We learned that from others that were successful (who said), ‘Hey, you’ve got to get yourself somebody to lobby for you,” he said, adding that Rubicon was specifically recommended to him.
Biasucci said he didn’t believe his donations or connections, or those of Rubicon, helped secure his funding.
“You're in business. You’ve got to do your thing,” Biasucci said of his donations.
Biasucci, a self-described conservative, said he also donates to other parties to maintain relationships. Records show that since 2014, he has given just $1,000 to the NDP and nothing to the Liberals, while his nephew gave $2,266 to the Liberals over that period.
Biasucci said he used the Skills Development Fund grant to expand his company’s high school training program from about 12 students to two groups of 40. He said he’s proud of his company’s program, which trains and hires young people at union wages, and is pleased it’s expanded.
He said he was encouraged by the unions representing his company’s workers to apply for the fund. Those unions are the Carpenters’ Regional Council and Local 793 of the International Union of Operating Engineers — the top two recipients of round five funding with $21.4 million between them. Both endorsed the PCs this election.
Biasucci said he donated to the labour minister because his company employs about 130 people and “accidents can happen any time,” and because he wanted to avoid “being a guy that just takes, takes and never gives back to the system.”
Biasucci said he never spoke about his SDF application with the labour minister, and only knows the premier from the three fundraisers he’s attended with him. He has a photo with Ford, which he said he likes to do with any politician.
“So if that picture costs you $1,000 to go to a dinner, well, you know, you spend $1,000 if you go to a steak house anyway,” he said.
Biasucci said the Skills Development Fund has worked well and that he worried it could be thrown out altogether due to the negative press.
“I don't begrudge the reporters who are doing this, and if somebody screws up, well, you know, fix it,” he said. “Nobody should be wasting money and nobody should be killing something that's working because somebody abused it.”
Labour minister’s riding donations surge
Piccini has overseen the Skills Development Fund since fall 2023, when Ford appointed him as labour minister after McNaughton resigned from his cabinet shortly before resigning his seat to work in the private sector. Political donations to Piccini’s riding association have skyrocketed since then.
In 2020, Piccini’s riding association received just over $50,000 in donations. That figure more than tripled in 2022, in the midst of his tenure as environment minister. In 2024, his second year as labour minister, the association received almost $450,000 from donors.
Between 2020 and 2025, there were 136 donations to Piccini’s and McNaughton’s riding associations by people with names matching the leaders of the 246 organizations that received funding in round five.
An early wave of donations that came to Piccini’s riding association after he became labour minister appears, based on its filings to Elections Ontario, to have been thanks to another SDF recipient-hosted fundraiser.
On Nov. 30, 2023, it received almost $25,000 from ticket sales to a $1,000-a-ticket fundraising dinner. Its “event expenses” were $1,407.07, the same amount it paid that year to the Power-Tek Group in a “fundraising expense" for a “party rental,” Piccini’s riding association’s financial filings show.
Power-Tek has been given SDF grants in every round of funding to date, totalling around $15 million. The largest one it received was in the program’s fourth round, awarded by Piccini’s office months after the fundraiser Power-Tek hosted.
At least some of the group’s training projects that were funded by round five of the Skills Development Fund are still ongoing. The Ministry of Labour’s deadline for applications for round six of SDF funding was a few weeks ago.
Power-Tek did not respond to questions sent by email.
A similar pattern played out in McNaughton’s riding, which received $163,633 in donations in 2019, when he became labour minister in June. Donations were down the next year as in-person events stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, but shot up to $384,317 in 2021, the first year of the SDF.
In 2022, McNaughton’s association received $450,598. In 2024, represented by PC backbencher Steve Pinsonneault, the association received just $29,057.