FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20 October 2025
QUEEN’S PARK – Today, Ontario Liberals issued the following statement highlighting their priorities ahead of the legislative session.
“While scandals, stunts and mismanaged funds continue to dominate headlines, Ontario families are being left behind. This session, Ontario Liberal MPPs will focus on holding the government to account for its misplaced priorities and who they’ve chosen to leave behind.
“When Doug Ford’s government announced the Skills Development Fund, it sounded like the kind of investment Ontario desperately needed,” said MPP John Fraser. “A program to create better jobs and help employers hire, train and retain workers. That’s something we could all get behind. But instead of helping people find work, Ford’s Conservatives helped their friends get rich.”
While other provinces are gaining construction and manufacturing jobs, Ontario lost over 7,800 construction jobs and 6,600 manufacturing jobs last year alone. Ontario now has one of the highest unemployment rates at 7.9% and highest youth unemployment rate in the country at 17.8%. Doug Ford has no plan to fix it.
“This program was designed to fix exactly these problems and instead, Ontario workers are paying the price,” said MPP Fraser. “That’s why Ontario Liberals are calling on the government to release the metrics for the Skills Development Fund and for Minister Piccini and his staff to appear before the public accounts committee to explain themselves.”
“Are things really better than they were in 2018?” asked MPP John Fraser. “Are our schools better? Is our economy stronger? Are our hospitals better? This government is putting their friends first and your families last.”
Ontario Liberals are demanding answers for the organizations that didn’t get funding because they didn’t have a Tory-connected lobbyist and for the thousands of Ontarians still out of work.
During the legislative session, Ontario Liberals will be focusing on the things that matter most to people: reducing the cost of living, housing, good jobs and safer communities. We’re focused on making sure healthcare and education are strengthened and not sacrificed to misplaced priorities.
Ontarians deserve a fair government that works for them, and that will be our focus every day this session.