The David Piccini drama continues
Ontario’s auditor general recently said Piccini’s Skills Development Fund allocation was “not fair, transparent or accountable”
There’s a new entry in the ongoing Skills Development Fund saga.
Back in January of 2023, Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini—who was environment minister at the time—was photographed enjoying rinkside seats at a Maple Leafs game.
Related: A politician and a lobbyist partied at the Paris Four Seasons last weekend
According to CTV News, Piccini’s office implied in a statement that he paid for the tickets himself, saying that he is a “lifelong sports fan who purchases his own tickets for games.”
But today’s CTV report reveals that Piccini’s seats actually belonged to the family of Peter Zakarow, the director of a company that has received millions of dollars from the Skills Development Fund, which Piccini now oversees. Zakarow is named as a director at Keel Digital Solutions, which was awarded at least $2.7 million from the public fund last year.
Piccini and the Skills Development Fund have faced scrutiny in recent weeks due to alleged conflicts of interest. The NDP called for Piccini’s resignation after Ontario’s auditor general concluded that the funding allocation process was “not fair, transparent or accountable.”
Piccini was recently a guest at the lavish wedding of lobbyist Michael Rudderham, in Paris. Rudderham also happens to be the lobbyist who represents Keel Digital Solutions.
This could be really bad—or this could just be two pals hoping to bypass the indignation of trying to get tickets through Ticketmaster. Who knows!
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
