Since David Piccini became Ontario’s labour minister, he’s accelerated a trend of his predecessor, steering more and more from the Ford government’s main worker-support program to for-profit businesses.
Piccini has been in charge of awarding grants from the Skills Development Fund (SDF) since late 2023. From the two rounds of the training stream he’s overseen, one-third of all taxpayer-funded grants have gone to 109 companies, including 70 led by donors to the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) — most of whom either first lent their financial support to the governing party or significantly increased contributions since the SDF’s launch in 2021, an analysis found.
The Trillium confirmed that owners, directors, CEOs, presidents or other executives of at least 70 companies awarded grants from the SDF’s fourth and fifth rounds were PC donors by cross-referencing Elections Ontario’s official donor data with various public sources of information, including those published by the businesses or contained in their corporate reports.
That work was coupled with a wider review of hundreds of grants the Ford government has given out through the program that, for months, has been attacked by opposition parties as a “slush fund.” This examination reveals that the $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund’s benefits have increasingly been directed to for-profit businesses while the shares given to municipalities and not-for-profits have shrunk.
And, while Piccini’s office insists that political donations bear no weight on its grant decisions, this analysis of the data shows the extent to which SDF funding for businesses that haven’t financially supported the party in power is dwarfed by funding for those led by PC donors.
In the SDF’s first round of funding, less than 15 per cent of the almost 150 grants were to for-profit companies. Businesses’ share of the pie has increased in every round since — rising to 40 per cent of the nearly 250 grants from the fifth, and most recent, round.
In the last two rounds of the SDF, Piccini and his staff sifted through over 1,500 applications to select about 300 businesses, not-for-profits, labour organizations, municipalities and other groups to split $592 million in taxpayer funds. As labour minister, Piccini has final say over the recipients.
Of the 109 businesses that got SDF grants in that time period, the 70 PC donor-led companies benefited in an outsized way. Almost $180 million of the $224 million — 80 per cent — of taxpayer funds went to the companies whose leaders include PC donors.
Thirty-five of the for-profit SDF recipients of the Piccini era made their first political donations to the PCs after the SDF was created, according to Elections Ontario’s online database, which goes back to 2014. Another 12 have significantly increased their donations to the PCs since the funding program’s launch. Together, these 47 companies received about $108 million — just under half of the SDF funding awarded to for-profit businesses in the fourth and fifth rounds of the program.
In a statement, Piccini’s spokesperson, Michel Figueredo, wrote, “As has been reiterated to you and The Trillium on multiple occasions, donations have no bearing on program eligibility, and every Skills Development Fund (SDF) agreement includes strict financial controls, risk assessments, verification of capacity, and on-site monitoring.”
Sudden donations; sudden funding
The Trillium reached out to dozens of companies that received funding from the fourth or fifth rounds of the SDF, asking about the political donations their leaders made to the PCs. Most didn't respond.
A few that did said no one in government told them that donations would help their application. Some said that they were simply conservatives, and gave accordingly.
The vast majority of examples are straightforward: a small business leader makes their first-ever PC donation around when they are awarded SDF funding.
GlobalDWS CEO Rami Wehbe and chief digital officer Yahya Saad donated almost $5,800 between them in 2024, including a $921 donation to Piccini’s riding association from Wehbe. The AI and robotics company received $800,000 in round 5 for training and education, according to Ministry of Labour documents.
Edge Factor president Jeremy Bout and vice-president Larissa Hofman gave just over $8,000 together between 2023 and 2025, including a $2,500 donation from Bout to Piccini’s candidacy in the recent election. The company got $1.1 million in round five to help people explore careers in the skilled trades.
Microforum Services Group CEO Frank Stipo donated more than $8,000 in 2024 and 2025. The Toronto vinyl pressing company received $1 million in round five for staff training.
And so on.
However, not every donor gave to the party before their first Skills Development Fund grant.
In November 2024, the Ford government announced it would give just under $500,000 from the SDF’s capital stream to Xpertek Construction, an Ottawa-area business that’s specialized in the construction of government buildings and other public projects for the last two decades.
A few months later, during last February’s election campaign period, the company’s three co-owners each made their first donations to an Ontario political party — just over $3,000 apiece to the PCs.
A few weeks after the election, Xpertek was awarded another $400,000 grant from the SDF, through the fifth round of the training stream.
Co-owner David Ryan said Xpeterk was successful with its third application for SDF funding. He’s learned from his many years in the government contracting business to “be persistent” when seeking public funding, he said.
As Ryan explained, he made political donations last year in part to help Xpertek get noticed, but also as a way “to give back,” given how important the SDF grant would be to supporting his business’s workers, which include many who are newcomers to Canada.
“For us, the (PC donations) were done after (Xpertek first received SDF funding). And, for me — very transparently — we loved the support, and it was a way to give back,” Ryan said.
According to Ryan, “20 per cent” of Xpertek’s workforce are temporary foreign workers from Ukraine. It was with them in mind that Ryan said he also gave to the federal Liberals’ campaign last year, “Simply because I expected that they would probably be the one in power,” in case the support helped open a door to “explain the situation of foreign workers.”
Those Ukrainian workers will be among those who benefit from the SDF grants awarded to Xpertek, Ryan said. The half-million it’s receiving from the program’s capital stream will help the company expand its facilities, helping support 34 workers each year over the five-year agreement, he said.
The other $400,000 training stream grant has supported a partnership between the company and La Cité, one of Ontario’s publicly funded colleges, to create a training program. “Xpertek University: training construction labour to address the workforce shortage,” as it’s described in Labour Ministry records, will support the training of 24 people over the next year.
For Xpertek, Ryan stressed, the SDF is “a game-changer to make a dent in the industry’s largest issue: skilled workforce.”
He also added, “I read the article about … (SDF) money (benefitting) a guy who owns a stripper bar — (and) that makes no sense whatsoever — … but in my case, it’s 180 degrees from that story.”
Simultaneous donations from corporate leaders
Corporate donations were banned in Ontario in 2017. Individuals can still donate thousands per year.
In several cases, leaders of companies that received SDF funding donated similar amounts to the PCs around the same time.
Ontario Shipyards (formerly Heddle Marine Services) has received yearly government funding from the Ministry of Transportation since the early 2000s — usually a few hundred thousand dollars, but occasionally $2 or $3 million.
In recent years, the provincial governments’ funding to the company has shot up thanks to the SDF. It was a recipient of funding rounds two, three and four of the program. While the government hasn’t published lists showing the amounts given to each SDF round’s recipients, the Ministry of Labour’s spending disclosures show it paid just over $10 million combined to the company in the years aligning with most of its round two and three payments.
The list of fourth round SDF grant-getters, including their amounts, that The Trillium obtained through a freedom-of-information request shows Ontario Shipyards was awarded $10 million as its highest single recipient.
CEO Shaun Padulo, owner Rick Heddle, crewman and relative Jason Heddle, CFO Erick Begin, government relations director Ted Kirkpatrick and VP Alicia Nash gave nearly $35,000 between them from 2018 to 2024. Several donations by separate executives appear to be fundraiser tickets. Two $1,832 donations, made by Kirkpatrick and Begin, were to then-labour minister Monte McNaughton’s riding association in 2021. All but two of the executives’ two dozen donations came after 2021, the year the SDF was created.
Padulo, who has donated more than $6,700 to Piccini and McNaughton’s riding associations since 2021, is also a Ford government appointee to the Hamilton Police Service Board and Mohawk College.
Ontario Shipyards did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Three companies that investment firm Malar Group has described as part of its portfolio received SDF funding.
Malar Group’s CEO, Sayan Navaratnam — who was penalized by the Ontario Securities Commission for allegedly misleading investors — donated $13,340 to the PCs between 2021 and 2024.
Malar Group COO Piratheepan Manickavasagar and CIO Jay Kunarathnam donated just under $17,000 each in 2024 and 2025, and Mark Thompson, whose name matches that of Malar’s executive vice-president of strategic relationships, donated $10,040 in 2024.
One of the Malar portfolio companies that received funding is A.C. Technical Systems. Dominic Burns, whose name matches that of the company’s CEO, gave more than $13,000 in 2024 and 2025. The security business received $351,454 in the latest round to “expand hiring opportunities by using AI-powered multilingual support tools” and other measures.
Neither Malar Group nor A.C. Technical Systems responded to requests for comment by press time.
Other companies that received fourth- or fifth-round SDF grants include the law firm of the new Metrolinx chair, who has given generously to the PCs since they were elected and who Premier Doug Ford has called a “friend”; an upscale animal hospital whose founders and family members appear to have donated over $80,000 to the PCs; and a commercial baker that starred in a video series the premier made to highlight Ontario businesses, whose owners have also donated tens of thousands of dollars to the PCs.
The Trillium previously reported that almost two-thirds of all SDF funding in the latest round — including all recipients, not just businesses — went to organizations led by PC donors.
In December, Ontario’s integrity commissioner launched an investigation into whether Piccini broke ethics laws in his handling of the program. The opposition complaints that prompted the investigation pointed to Piccini’s attendance, as environment minister, of a 2023 Maple Leafs game with a director of Keel Digital Solutions, a company he would later award funding to as labour minister — and his trip to Paris this fall for the wedding of a lobbyist for that company — as well as the government’s funding of an organization that partners with the owner of an licensed adult entertainment club.
Keel Digital Solutions owns Get A-Head, which was awarded about $7.5 million combined from rounds four and five of the SDF.
The OPP is now investigating Keel based on red flags the government found about its handling of government payments from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. The Ontario government is now suing Keel, alleging it defrauded the province of almost $26 million. The claims have not been tested in court, and Keel has denied wrongdoing, saying the government is using it as a “scapegoat” for its SDF scandal.
There have been other recipients of the Skills Development Fund led by Ford government public appointees, plus others that have involved PC Party officials, past candidates, and ex-staffers of cabinet ministers.
This story has been updated to make it clear that David Piccini was environment minister at the time of his attendance of a Maple Leafs game with a director of Keel Digital Solutions.