Rinkside seats Piccini spotted in belonged to family of director of company that got millions from Skills Development Fund

CTV's Jon Woodward reports there are new questions about the minister's explanation.

The rinkside Maple Leafs seats David Piccini was photographed in belong to the family of the man sitting next to him, a director of a company that would go on to get millions in Skills Development Fund grants when Piccini became Ontario’s labour minister, CTV News has learned.

That complicates Piccini’s claims that he pays for his own tickets, given that any money repaid could have gone back to the family of Peter Zakarow, and the two of them may have had to set their own price for tickets that routinely go for more than $1,000 each, one observer said.

“I would think the Integrity Commissioner would reach out and say, ‘What’s going on here?’” said York University’s Ian Stedman, an associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

“When you’re not in public office, you can go to the game with your buddies all the time and just pay them back by buying beer and wings. But when you’re a public official, you actually have to be very scrupulous about making sure there’s a record that you paid them back.”

Piccini was photographed just after the Leafs scored on January 17, 2023, when he was Ontario’s environment minister.

His office implied in a statement that he paid for the tickets himself, saying earlier in October that he is a “lifelong sports fan who purchases his own tickets for games.”

CTV News has learned via two sources that those specific tickets are season tickets that have been in the Zakarow family’s hands for decades.

Which means if Piccini paid for them, he would likely not have paid the Maple Leafs box office or a resale website, but may have paid the Zakarow family back.

CTV News followed up with Piccini’s office, asking him if he paid that family back, and if so, how much.

They told us, “Minister Piccini has already publicly responded to these questions.”

• READ MORE: Ontario labour minister denies Skills Development Fund used to reward friends, political allies with millions in grants

However, in an earlier exchange with CTV News on October 16, Piccini didn’t say who he paid, instead choosing to talk about the fund itself.

“Our stats are showing that we have more women in the trades today than at any point in modern history. We’re getting indigenous youth registered into the trades and that’s because the Skills Development Fund is changing lives,” he said at the time.

The Skills Development Fund is a major policy of the Ford government, which has said the $2.5 billion in grants are crucial tools to retrain workers and stimulate the economy.

However, it has come under fire in recent weeks as Ontario’s opposition target the hundreds of millions of dollars that have gone through agencies that endorsed the Ford government in a recent election, or that went through a lobbying firm owned by one of the Ford’s campaign managers.

At least one grant went to Keel Digital Solutions, a Toronto company that says it trains peer support workers for police officers.

That company got at least $2.7 million from the Skills Development Fund the year following that hockey game. Zakarow is one listed director.

The lobbyist that represented Keel Digital Solutions was Michael Rudderham. He’s been the subject of a complaint by the NDP that he put Piccini in a conflict of interest by inviting him to his wedding at a luxury hotel in France.

CTV News visited Keel’s offices on Monday, and while one staffer took a message no one returned it.

Messages to Zakarow have not been returned either.

NDP calls for Piccini’s resignation

During Question Period in the Ontario Legislature on Monday, opposition parties reiterated their calls for Piccini to resign, with NDP Leader Marit Stiles saying the full rankings given by the non-partisan staff for each grant should be released.

Those are the rankings that the province’s Auditor-General found were overruled more than half the time by political staff in grants worth $742 million, in a process that was “not fair, transparent or accountable.”

“Will this minister keep treating tax dollars like a friends and family fund?” Stiles asked.

“Speaker, full of inaccuracies,” Piccini said in response.

“We don’t rank applications, we review and assess them against government priorities, like our housing supply action plan, like our plan to mine critical minerals in Northern Ontario to make sure we’re supporting worthwhile career opportunities in the North.”

He pointed to several projects granted Skills Development Funding that were connected to former NDP candidates.

It’s safest to repay the market price of any tickets, said Stedman, who used to work in the office of Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner. Anything less could mean that the savings could amount to a gift that has to be declared, he said.

“The commissioner’s office in its best efforts has looked at that and said, what’s fair market value? What’s fair market value at the time that you exchanged? And then you can also be reasonable and say, you know, it’s not always the case that we pay fair market value. We do have friends and our friends do do nice things,” Stedman said.

“The question then for the commissioner will be, is that a gift and should it be reported? And that’s tricky. There, it’s a case by case basis.”

Integrity Commissioner records say Piccini didn’t declare any gifts in 2023, 2024, or 2025.

In a statement to CTV News, the Integrity Commissioner said it doesn’t comment on whether an MPP has made a request for advice.