Rinkside seats at a Leafs game. A lobbyist’s wedding in Paris. And $700 million in public money flowing through a program where the minister’s office routinely overrode its own scoring process. The Skills Development Fund scandal has been following the Ford government since the Auditor General tore into it in fall 2025, and it escalated in January 2026 when the province filed a $25.9 million lawsuit against Keel Digital Solutions and its subsidiary Get A-Head, alleging fraud and conspiracy: “false and misleading quarterly reports” over roughly three years, between 2022 and 2025, resulting in payouts based on inflated numbers.
$700 Million, Hundreds of Recipients, Minimal Oversight
The SDF launched in 2020 as a pandemic response: help workers upgrade their skills, help employers adapt. Between 2020 and 2025, it distributed approximately $700 million across hundreds of recipients. Training organizations, community colleges, Indigenous groups, private companies. The government promoted every funding round aggressively, with press releases featuring local MPPs and worker-trained tallies. At its peak, the fund was one of the largest discretionary spending programs in the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
The word “discretionary” matters. Applicants submitted proposals, ministry staff scored them, and the minister had final say. That approval power became the focal point of the Auditor General’s investigation.
The Auditor General’s Findings
The AG’s report, released in early October 2025, called the SDF “not fair, transparent or accountable.” The central finding: labour ministers overrode the scoring process to select lower-scoring applicants. More than 60 of those lower-scoring applicants had hired a lobbyist.
Ministry staff evaluated applications and ranked them. The minister’s office could, and regularly did, add organizations that hadn’t been recommended or had scored below the funding threshold. Bottom-quartile applicants got funded. Higher-scoring ones got rejected. No documented rationale for most of these overrides. More than 400 organizations received SDF money over the program’s lifespan, and the AG’s report examined a subset of funding rounds and found the override pattern in multiple cycles.
Not occasional. Systemic.
Opposition parties pounced. NDP Leader Marit Stiles accused the government of leaving “Ontarians footing the bill” for what she characterized as corruption, while Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser called the government’s subsequent lawsuit “self-serving,” given that police were already investigating.
The Minister, the Lobbyist, and the Leafs Game
Then the spotlight landed on Labour Minister David Piccini himself. Days after the AG report dropped, it emerged that Piccini had attended the wedding of Keel’s then-lobbyist, Michael Rudderham, in Paris. And earlier, in January 2023 (months before Ford appointed him labour minister), Piccini had been photographed in rinkside seats at a Toronto Maple Leafs game with one of Keel’s directors.
Rinkside. Not nosebleeds.
Follow the dates. Leafs game: January 2023. Piccini becomes labour minister: June 2023. Keel receives SDF funding during Piccini’s tenure. Paris wedding: 2025, after Keel had already collected millions. None of this proves a quid pro quo. It doesn’t have to, and that’s the point. A minister socializing with people who receive his discretionary funding is exactly what integrity rules exist to prevent.
Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner Cathryn Motherwell launched an ethics investigation into Piccini’s dealings with the fund.
How Fast Things Moved
The timeline is dizzying. AG report: early October 2025. Leafs game photos and Paris wedding connection: days later, via media investigations. OPP referral: late October. Integrity Commissioner investigation into Piccini: November. And then in January 2026, the government filed the $25.9 million lawsuit against Keel Digital.
Filing the lawsuit was itself a bold move. The province claims to be the victim of fraud, yet it approved these payments for three straight years. The opposition will not let anyone forget that part. The lawsuit’s “conspiracy” allegation is a civil legal term, not a criminal charge; in Ontario civil law, conspiracy requires showing that two or more parties agreed to act together to cause injury through unlawful means or through lawful means with the predominant purpose of causing harm. If proven, it could open the door to damages beyond the contract amounts.
Piccini’s Poll Numbers
52%. That’s the share of Ontarians who believe Piccini should resign or be removed from cabinet, according to an Abacus Data poll commissioned by CUPE Ontario. Even among past PC voters, 43% agreed it was time for him to go.
Only 19% said he should stay.
"Should Piccini resign?" (Abacus/CUPE poll)
Ford and Piccini deny wrongdoing. Neither has shifted from that position.
Echoes of Past Scandals
Ontario has seen this before. eHealth Ontario, 2009: $1 billion on electronic health records, untendered contracts for consultants with political connections. Ornge air ambulance, 2012: the agency’s CEO used public funds for personal expenses and created for-profit subsidiaries. Both helped destroy the Liberals’ credibility and contributed to their eventual wipeout.
The playbook never changes. Discretionary spending, ministerial involvement, connections between recipients and people close to government, oversight that doesn’t catch anything until it’s too late.
What’s different this time is that the Ford government filed its own lawsuit before the opposition could fully control the narrative. Victim of fraud, not enabler of it. That’s a neat trick if it holds.
And Then They Went After FOI
And then, in March 2026, the government announced plans to exempt the premier’s and ministers’ offices from freedom of information requests. Retroactively (a word that should make everyone nervous). Which means it could affect ongoing investigations, including those related to the Skills Development Fund and the Greenbelt.
Keel Digital responded to the lawsuit by stating it “has never been involved in any fraudulent activity” and expects the government “to be compelled to retract its claims, apologize, and answer for the recklessness and malice that drove this case.”
The integrity commissioner’s investigation continues. The courts will sort out the fraud claims. But politically, the damage is baked in: the SDF has become shorthand for a government that critics say cares more about rewarding friends than building skills.
Seven hundred million dollars meant for retraining Ontario’s workforce. The biggest lesson it taught was about ministerial discretion without oversight.
Sources and verification: The $25.9 million lawsuit against Keel Digital Solutions/Get A-Head is confirmed by the statement of claim filed January 2026, as reported by CBC News, Global News, CP24, and the Trillium. The Auditor General’s SDF report was released in early October 2025. The lobbyist connection (60+ lower-scoring applicants) is from the AG report. Piccini’s attendance at Rudderham’s Paris wedding and the Leafs game photograph are from media investigations reported by CBC and Global News. The Abacus Data poll (52% support for Piccini’s removal) was commissioned by CUPE Ontario. The Integrity Commissioner investigation is from published commission announcements. Keel Digital’s statement is from their public response. The SDF’s creation in 2020, approximate $700 million total disbursement, and 400+ recipient organizations are from Ministry of Labour public announcements and the AG report. The OPP referral in late October 2025 is from CBC News. The civil conspiracy legal standard is based on Ontario jurisprudence. The eHealth Ontario ($1 billion, 2009) and Ornge (2012) scandals are from Auditor General reports and media archives. The scoring override process description draws from the AG’s detailed findings.
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