FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 October 2025
QUEEN’S PARK – MPP John Fraser, Ontario Liberal Parliamentary Leader and Critic for Labour and Education, issued the following statement in response to the Auditor General of Ontario’s four Special Reports released today:
Today’s reports show what Ontarians already know: Doug Ford’s Conservatives don’t play fair. There are no rules, no accountability—just decisions made for insiders at everyone else’s expense. We saw it with the Greenbelt. Now we’re seeing it again with the Skills Development Fund: billions of taxpayer dollars mismanaged while the things families rely on most—jobs, childcare, housing, and climate action—are left behind.
It’s not fair for the 700,000 people in Ontario looking for work, for families who have spent years searching for childcare and still can’t find a space, for people who expect their government to protect them when buying or building a home, for those looking for leadership on climate change, or for communities like Kapuskasing—any small town in Ontario—facing the loss of jobs while more than $20 million flows to clubs, bars, and restaurants in downtown Toronto.
The Skills Development Fund has become a racket. More than half the money—$742 million—went to the lowest-ranked projects tied to Ford’s allies, while 670 stronger applications were turned down. $27 million went to restaurants, bars, and nightclubs in downtown Toronto, despite having applications that were failing and late.
Ontario Liberals will be calling on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to study the Skills Development Fund Special Report. The current and former Ministers of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills must be called in for questioning. They need to be held accountable, and Ontarians deserve to know how this happened.
This smells just like the Greenbelt. We have the usual suspects and wealthy, well-connected insiders benefitting from what looks a lot like a slush fund.