Ontario labour minister attended Leafs game, wedding with those seeking millions from Skills Development Fund: reports

Ontario labour minister attended Leafs game with those seeking millions from Skills Development Fund

The office of Ontario’s labour minister is downplaying reports he was at a wedding in Paris and photographed at a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game with those who stood to benefit from millions in government grants from his ministry.

Minister David Piccini’s office said he paid for his own hockey tickets in the first instance and his own hotel stays in the second, as the province’s opposition raises questions about his connections to the companies funded through his ministry’s Skills Development Fund.

• ‘Something doesn’t smell right’: $100 million in Skills Development Fund grants traced to lobbyists with ties to Ontario premier

“Minister Piccini is a lifelong sports fan who purchases his own tickets to games,” said a statement from his office, saying at the time he was photographed, he was the province’s environment minister and not responsible for labour ministry grants.

That game, on January 17, 2023, saw the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Florida Panthers. Tied 4-4 in overtime, Leafs forward William Nylander scored with just over three minutes remaining to win the game.

As he celebrated, he slipped briefly onto the ice before getting up and joining his team—a moment that was captured by a Leafs photographer.

Among the fans spotted in that photograph is Piccini, who is pumping his fists. Next to him is Peter Zakarow, who is waving his hands in the air.

Zakarow is a listed director of a company called Keel Digital Solutions that says it trains peer support workers for police officers. That company got at least $2.7 million from the Skills Development Fund the following year, when Piccini was overseeing the fund as labour minister, according to a government announcement at the time.

The photo and the connection were first identified by TheTrillium.ca.

Integrity Commissioner records show the lobbyist that represented Keel Digital Solutions was Michael Rudderham.

Photos on social media show Rudderham getting married in Paris this month—something that came up on Wednesday on Newstalk 1010 in questions from host John Moore.

“Is there the possibility you might entertain that your government may be a bit too cozy with some of the people getting the money? Looking at a headline from TheTrillium.ca: ‘Ontario labour minister attended lobbyist’s wedding after granting his clients millions in training funds.”

Piccini responded, “I don’t control private sector decisions on who hires whom to represent them. I don’t need a lobbyist to tell me to support first responders.”

Piccini then described the benefits of one of the Progressive Conservative government’s signature projects: a fund to retrain workers facing headwinds from the pandemic and from US tariffs.

Piccini’s staff said in a statement, “Minister Piccini travelled to Europe for a long-planned private family trip. While abroad, he attended a wedding. Expenses associated with both were paid by him, and he stayed at a different hotel than where the wedding took place.”

The Skills Development Fund has faced criticism after it emerged that PC donors and those connected to PC lobbyists have received millions of dollars, including an animal hospital, a bakery, a casino, and a network of bars.

• Millions in Skills Development Fund grants went to Ontario PC donors, fuelling claims it’s a ‘slush fund’

Ontario’s Auditor General Shelley Spence found the fund gave out almost $750 million in grants through decisions by political staff, overruling non-partisan staff, who rated those applications low in quality.

“We found that the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Skills Development process for the selection of applications was not fair, transparent or accountable,” Spence said earlier this month.

That grant to Keel Digital Solutions was rated “lower,” Piccini told Moore.

“There were projects that were lower scoring that we did select that and that’s a conversation that I have with our officials here that align with government priorities,” he said.

“Peel police – we supported [the] lower scoring project. It supports mental health. Our first responders are more likely than the general population to commit suicide. That’s a real reality. When crime is as important to Ontarians, everywhere I go, I hear about crime, it matters to me that I’m supporting the men and women who are the first on the scene,” he said.

Together, the listed directors of Keel Digital Solutions gave just over $8,000 to the PC Party, Election Ontario records show.

Zakarow, Keel Digital Solutions, Rudderham, and Peel Police didn’t return calls for comment.

• ‘Not fair, transparent or accountable’: Ontario’s auditor general weighs in on $750M in Skills Development Fund grants

In a statement, Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles pointed out that it is the second anniversary of the RCMP investigation into the Greenbelt scandal, where connected insiders were poised to benefit to the tune of billions of dollars with a land rezoning before the project was abandoned amid public pressure.

“Two years later, it’s déjà vu. We saw it with Ontario Place, and now we’re seeing it again, with revelations that Labour Minister David Piccini may have tipped the scales to help well-connected insiders cash in on the Skills Development Fund meant to support workers,” said Stiles in a statement.

“While Piccini enjoys lobbyists’ Parisian weddings and ice-level Leafs tickets, he’s just following Ford’s lead: get caught, apologize, and do it all over again. Has this government learned nothing?” she said.