NDP: Auditor General report shows Ford has no respect for taxpayer dollars

QUEEN’S PARK – Marit Stiles, Leader of the Ontario NDP is calling on the Ford government to ensure that every single dollar from the Skills Development Fund (SDF) goes to workers after Auditor General sounds the alarm about the process:

“Ontario is in the middle of a Doug Ford-fueled jobs disaster.” said Stiles. “Instead of helping the 800,000 Ontarians out of work, Ford is taking money away from the workers who need it the most.”

“We saw it with the Greenbelt, we saw it with Ontario place, and we’re seeing it again. This government has no respect for the taxpayer dime, and Ontarians aren’t getting any bang for their buck.”

“Every single dollar from this fund should go to workers and employers who create good, unionized jobs. But under Doug Ford, the money is going to his friends who are lobbying for their own benefit, while workers are left behind. If you scored high, you didn’t get the money, but if you scored low but had a lobbyist, you got the money. This is textbook preferential treatment."

QUICK FACTS:

• The Auditor General describes the process as “not fair, transparent or accountable, and there was little rationale to explain why the high-ranked applicants were not chosen.”
• 54% of applications approved by the Ministry of Labour were poorly ranked
• These low ranking applications were awarded $742 million in Skills Development Funding
• 670 higher-ranked applications were denied funding without explanation
• Over 100 funded applicants, including many low-ranked ones hired lobbyists before being approved