‘Shades of the Greenbelt’: questions raised about Ontario’s $2.5-billion private career training fund

Cutbacks at Ontario colleges are generating fear for the job security of faculty and staff.

An Ontario public-sector union is crying foul about grants given out from a multi-billion-dollar provincial fund for private career training, even as the province’s public colleges face unprecedented shortfalls it projects will lead to thousands of job losses.

One of those applications to the Skills Development Fund (SDF) was from a Toronto-area restaurant chain, a legislature committee heard last year. It was handed in late, earned low scores from bureaucrats, but got grants totaling about $11 million anyway, the committee heard.

It also heard one of the former staffers in Premier Doug Ford’s office who worked on that application in 2021 was Amin Massoudi, who allegedly got massages in a Las Vegas spa at the same time as developers eyeing the province’s protected Greenbelt.

“All of a sudden, these friends of Ford’s are getting more money,” said JP Hornick, the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

“This has shades of the Greenbelt all over again. And I think the more that we dig into this, the more we may find there’s a reason this stuff is not transparent,” Hornick said.

In that committee meeting in September 2024, NDP MPP Jamie West asked questions about the timeline, Massoudi’s involvement, and basic facts like how many workers were trained in the program – but didn’t get an answer then, transcripts show.

“I think it’s clear to everyone here where you’re attempting to go here with the question,” responded Minister of Labour David Piccini. “But I would say the programs are reviewed by our team…there are performance indicators.”

The Ministry of Labour didn’t give specific answers to questions by CTV News about what those performance indicators said about the grants to that restaurant company, Scale Hospitality, and what the results were of the programs that were offered.

Massoudi’s lobbying firm, Atlas Strategic Advisors, represented Scale Hospitality from 2022 to 2025, according to Ontario’s lobbyist registry.

Massoudi said in a statement to CTV News on Tuesday that the Scale Hospitality program helped at-risk youth get a job.

“This program worked directly with at-risk youth and marginalized individuals, providing specialized training that leads to meaningful employment opportunities, while supporting the post-COVID recovery of the hospitality sector. All efforts to raise awareness around the many merits and positive social impacts of this proposal were appropriately registered and fully compliant,” Massoudi said.

In 2023, CTV News reported that Massoudi, then-Minister Kaleed Rasheed, and developer Shakir Rehmatullah got massages at the same time at a spa in the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas – something that contradicted the story they had told the province’s integrity commissioner at the time.

The story immediately preceded a decision by Premier Doug Ford to cancel plans to develop land in the Greenbelt that would be worth some $8 billion. Rasheed resigned, as did another aide, Jae Truesdell, joining other resignations by then Housing Minister Steve Clark and his chief of staff, Ryan Amato. The RCMP’s investigation of the Greenbelt deals is ongoing.

That same year, the government announced Scale Hospitality would receive some $6 million to provide “micro-credentials” to about 1200 people in the hospitality sector as part of projects to help people with criminal records find work in its network of restaurants. Scale Hospitality also received a second round of funding, records provided by the ministry show.

The grants were among about $2.5 billion in grants given out so far under the program, which ministry officials touted to CTV News as one that had given out dozens of grants that made a meaningful difference to those seeking to be retrained amid the twin hits of COVID-19 and U.S. tariffs.

“We are proud of the success of our programs that are strengthening Ontario’s workforce for years to come, and we will continue to deliver on this progress to help workers gain skills for in-demand jobs,” said Michel Figueredo, the director of communications for Minister Piccini.

Some of the SDF money has gone to post-secondary institutions themselves, he said, pointing to $1.5 million to upskill participants in life sciences at the University of Waterloo, over $509,000 for youth machinist and millwright training at Humber College, and over $2.5 million to Centennial College and the Ontario Aerospace Council for advanced mechanics training.

Meanwhile, Ontario’s colleges have been hard hit by federal immigration changes that have drastically reduced the number of higher fee-paying international students. That’s one factor behind the cancellation of hundreds of programs and job losses that OPSEU projects could exceed 10,000.

“When I see 10,000 jobs lost, that is devastating,” said Hornick. The grant to Scale Hospitality is larger than some small public colleges receive annually, Hornick said.

Among the programs that have already been cut is Loyalist College’s culinary program, leaving Chef Karin Desveaux teaching only until the current crop of students have graduated.

“It was completely shocking,” Desveaux said in an interview, pointing to the role that the Loyalist College program had in promoting Prince Edward County as a food tourism destination.

“The impact that the program is going to have on the local economy will be felt in many, many ways,” she said.

“I’m really focused on the hope and possibility of reinstating these programs,” Desveaux said.