Ontario’s Auditor General Shelley Spence recently released her annual report, shedding light on the Doug Ford government’s Skills Development Fund. This fund has been providing financial support to non-profits, unions, and private companies to enhance the skills of workers through training programs.
In her report, Spence highlighted that the government has been favoring lower-ranked applications over high-ranked ones, with 54% of funding allocated to less competitive proposals. Surprisingly, over half of the applicants had hired lobbyists to influence the ministry’s decisions on fund allocation.
The report also revealed that 39 high-ranked applications, receiving a total of $58 million in funding, had employed lobbyists to secure their grants. Furthermore, the Minister’s Office failed to provide clear reasons for selecting 388 applications, which collectively received a substantial $479 million in funding.
Despite these findings, the Auditor General confirmed that no laws were violated in the distribution of over $1.3 billion in funds across the first five rounds of the Skills Development Fund.
Regarding previous reports linking fund allocations to specific connections, The Trillium publication mentioned funds directed to a dentists’ brokerage associated with then-labour minister Monte McNaughton’s wife and other PC party donors. However, the Auditor General’s report did not explicitly establish these connections.
This scheme is part of the province’s broader $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund, which aims to support projects facilitating workforce training, retraining, and recruitment initiatives.