The Ford government launched more than a dozen forensic audits over the last five years, Global News has confirmed, including several probes at the ministry responsible for the controversial skills development fund.

Forensic audits are detailed investigations into the financial records of service providers that receive funding from the Ontario government.

Run by the Treasury Board, they are typically triggered by red flags or anomalies and are used to verify financial accuracy or detect potential fraud.

In 2025, a forensic investigation into a company contracted by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities uncovered apparent “irregularities,” prompting the Ford government to refer the case to the OPP.

Now, a list obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws shows 19 forensic audits have been launched over the past five years across a range of ministries, suggesting wide-ranging concern with how taxpayer funds are being handled once they leave Queen’s Park.

The government did not respond to questions, including what triggered the audits and whether the findings had led to suspension of funding for companies or referrals to other authorities.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the government should be learning the lessons from previous mistakes and putting in place guardrails for when companies and ministries face forensic audits.

“I think it’s good that government is doing due diligence; that’s very important,” she said. “My question would be, have these (audits) been flagged and is other money continuing to flow to those companies or to those organizations?”

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

The details of the audits are scant. Officials shared a list of ministries, the number of audits, and the years they were conducted and the premier’s office did not respond to any questions.

Topping the list is the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, which has seen more forensic audits than any other department.

The record shows there were four audits involving the ministry’s vendors in 2024 and one in 2025.

That ministry is responsible for the skills development fund, a controversial training program, which a report from Ontario’s auditor general said was “not fair, transparent or accountable.”

The auditor general also found that the majority of applications selected were ranked low or medium by the Ministry of Labour and that more than 60 of the lower-scoring applicants were approved after hiring a lobbyist.

Last year, it was revealed that Keel Digital Solutions — one of the recipients of skills development funding — was under a forensic audit relating to a contract with another ministry.

Through 2024 and 2025, the company received millions in taxpayer money, even after “irregularities” were flagged. According to a statement of claim the government later filed against Keel, the forensic audit began in 2024.

“We’ve seen in the past, unfortunately, though, that when the government was conducting forensic audits, for example, into a couple of the skills development fund recipients, they did not flag those files,” Stiles added.

“And so other money was continuing to flow to those companies that were under forensic audit.”

Premier Doug Ford previously suggested the province always presumes innocence during audits.

“We cut off the funding as soon as we get the results,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park in the fall. “You don’t presume someone guilty right away. What you do is find out if there’s a problem with the money, then we’re the ones who go ahead and call in the OPP.”

Keel said that it has “complied with all laws and contract obligations” and expects to receive a “government apology at the end of this.” It is currently countersuing the provincial government, saying the audit process was “deeply flawed” and secretive.

After months of pressure from opposition parties, the integrity commissioner announced an investigation into the skills development fund last year and Labour Minister David Piccini.

The forensic audit list obtained by Global News shows there were also two investigations at the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, one in 2022 and another in 2024.

The only audit flagged so far in 2026 involved the Ministry of Health.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The company at the centre of a $29.5 million government lawsuit and allegations of fraud is pushing to move the case to commercial court in the hopes of speeding up the legal fight — a move the Ford government is attempting to block.

The company, Keel Digital Solutions, received millions from both the Ministry of Colleges and Universities as well as the Ministry of Labour, through its subsidiary Get A-Head, for counselling services for students on college and university campuses.

In a recent lawsuit, the province alleged the owners of Keel submitted “fraudulent” data on the services they provided and that the company was “unjustly enriched.” Keel fired back, saying the government’s argument was “deeply flawed, built on misstatements and outright inaccuracies.”

Now, weeks after being served with legal action by the government, its executives are trying to move the fight to a new arena — urging the province to accept a speedier resolution to allegations of fraud.

“Keel is ready to have the facts tested,” the company said in a statement.

“If the Province truly believes in its own allegations, and if it genuinely stands behind its repeated rhetoric about ‘Respect for Taxpayers,’ then it should have no hesitation in advancing this matter immediately in the Commercial Court, saving potentially millions in legal fees.”

In the latest twist, Keel’s executives have filed a motion to move the case to the Superior Court’s Commercial List, arguing they want to prioritize speed in order to preserve their reputation.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

In the filing, the company claimed that the province “unleashed the weight of the government,” putting both the company’s viability and the owners’ reputation at risk. It expressed concern that a resolution could be “years away.”

“The reputations of the individual defendants and the ongoing viability of the corporate defendants are being irreparably damaged in real time,” the motion by Keel Digital Solutions argued.

The company said the government’s lawsuit, launched in early January, has made its directors “toxic,” has “effectively shut down the business,” forced them to lay off at least 30 staff and could result in the “bankruptcy” of its owners.

“The only practical way to mitigate the devastating harm to the defendants is an expedited trial that dismisses the baseless and misguided allegations in the claim,” Keel said in its motion.

Moving the case to the commercial list — presided by a team of judges with experience in managing complex commercial litigation — could potentially speed up the legal battle and lead to a resolution within a year.

The government, however, has balked at the request.

In a filing of its own, lawyers for the Ministry of the Attorney General said they do not view the case as being “appropriate” for the commercial court because the central concern relates to “compliance with provincial funding agreements and fraud.”

Rather than sitting idle, the government suggested its lawyers have already moved ahead with the next stage of the ongoing legal battle by requesting Keel’s internal data on the virtual mental health counselling sessions it offered.

The data includes start and end times of sessions, participant numbers, identification numbers, and login details, all of which the government claims the company has yet to turn over.

“It is [the company’s] refusal, and the absence of that highly relevant data, that grounded the audit’s serious concerns and is now central to Ontario’s claim,” government lawyers said in their filing.

Back in November, the Ford government sent the findings of a forensic audit into Keel Digital Solution to Ontario Provincial Police, which has since opened an investigation.

The province said that a “routine audit” of the business had raised red flags that led to the forensic probe and eventual police investigation. Keel Digital Solutions strenuously denied that claim, raising questions about how the audit had been conducted and disputing its findings.

Then, at the beginning of the year, the government announced it had filed its own lawsuit against Keel, accusing it of breaching its contract and providing false and misleading reports.

The government’s lawsuit — against which Keel has filed a counterclaim and wants to see moved into commercial court — alleged that between 2022 and 2025 the company “provided false and misleading quarterly reports of their corporate performance measures,” which resulted in the government paying out its contracts.

Keel’s counterclaim seeks damages of $98 million, including for payments the government withheld and for what they call loss of corporate value.

The company said in its defence that the government’s audit process was secretive and “deeply flawed.” It also claims that when the province announced the police referral due to what it called “inconsistencies” found through the audit, the company says that it was done with the intent to harm its reputation.

The claims from either the government or Keel Digital Solutions have not been proven in court, and no charges have been laid in the OPP’s investigation.

The motion to move the case to the Commercial List will be heard in early March.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.