Auditor’s report sparks calls for Ontario labour minister’s resignation over skills fund oversight

Ontario lawmakers returned to Queen’s Park Monday, after a nearly five month-long summer break, and all eyes were on a new Auditor General’s report.

It found the government was not “fair, transparent or accountable” when giving out the cash from its skills development fund.

The opposition is calling for the labour minister to step down over the issue.

After 137 days of summer break, Queen’s Park is back in session until the holidays, and the opposition wasted no time getting down to business.

The NDP, Liberals and Greens focused most of their time in the question period on the findings of a new auditor general’s report on the skills development fund — a $2.5 billion  government program that provides money to businesses training workers in the wake of U.S. tariffs.

The attorney general called into question how the businesses were chosen, saying the process was not “fair, transparent or accountable.”

“Hundreds of millions of dollars, meanwhile, that were meant to be for training people for new opportunities, have been going into the pockets of Conservative friends and insiders,” said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

“We have to keep fighting against President Trump, I said that to the prime minister — we need to hit back,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “There’s one person hitting back, and it’s not the leader of the opposition, it’s not the opposition, it’s our party.”

For most of the question period, it was Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini in the hot seat.

The auditor found that Piccini’s office has been heavily involved in selecting projects that get funded and has doled out money to applicants ranked low by bureaucrats, without documenting why.

WATCH MORE: Doug Ford faces new corruption accusations following scathing spending reports from Auditor General

The auditor also found that more than 60 of the lower-scoring applicants were approved after they hired a lobbyist, which has the opposition crying foul over what they call preferential treatment.

At Queen’s Park Monday, Piccini and the conservatives defended the program.

“I’m happy to work with the integrity commissioner — we welcome it, but this is about funding important programs that are changing people’s lives,” said Piccini. “It’s about supporting our construction workers, supporting our first responders.”

While the minister said his government agreed to make the auditor’s recommended changes, he did say his ministry would continue to select who receives the funds.

During question period, the Liberals were calling on the labour minister to resign.

When he was asked about it after the question period, he said he’s not going anywhere.

“The Minister should be fired,” said Liberal Parliamentary Leader John Fraser. “It’s not right when there’s 700,000 people looking for jobs in Ontario — when they’re worried about paying rent, or putting food on the table for kids — to see this kind of money shoveled over to a bunch of insiders should make them angry.”

Ontario’s NDP leader says she plans to file a complaint with the integrity commissioner over the matter.

Later in the day, Ontario’s education minister tabled a bill that would allow the government to fire a Brant region school trustee.

The trustee is one of four from the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic School Board who say they took a lavish trip to Italy last year to find religious art for schools, and racked up a $45,000 bill.

The minister said trustee Mark Watson has not been paying his share back, and so will need to be removed.

READ MORE: Education minister tables bill to fire Haldimand trustee who refused to repay $12K after Italy trip