Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles isn’t holding back criticism of the provincial government after being ejected from the legislature this week.
During Question Period on Wednesday, Stiles was reprimanded after describing Doug Ford’s government as “anti-democratic” and “corrupt” while grilling Labour Minister David Piccini over his handling of the scandal-plagued Skills Development Fund.
Speaker Donna Skelly warned Stiles after she made the comment that it was unparliamentary language and asked her to withdraw it, but Stiles refused, and she was booted from the legislature as a result.
In an interview with Breakfast Television on Friday, Stiles said she stands by the comments and has no plans to back down.
“I don’t take it lightly, it’s not something I want to do every day, because when I’m ejected from the legislature I can’t go back in and vote,” Stiles explained. “As the leader of the opposition, I get every day to ask the premier questions that I think people out there want answered. And I get to hold them to account.”
“The issues we’ve been dealing with is a situation where a program that gives out billions of dollars in grants is connected to a minister of labour who has been receiving […] favours from companies that have benefitted [from the program],” she explained.
“I think that is corruption. I’m going to call it what it is,” she added.
Stiles pointed to a scathing report released last month by Ontario’s independent Auditor General, which found that the minister was not selecting funding applicants based on who had the highest overall score.
“This can create an appearance of real or potential preferential treatment by the Minister’s Office in its selection of applicants to fund,” the Auditor General Shelley Spence wrote. “It is also not fair, transparent or accountable to those applying for funding or to the public.”
Evaluators say they could not identify a standard rationale used to determine how much funding was provided to each applicant or why some applications that scored “high” were passed over.
“There is an inconsistency in how this Ministry selects the applications it funds in many of its programs,” the Auditor General added, while noting that no laws were broken.
The Ontario Liberals and the Green Party have joined the NDP in calling for Piccini to resign over what they call a “pay-to-play” scheme.
Piccini maintains he has done nothing wrong and Premier Doug Ford has said he will not fire the labour minister.
With files from The Canadian Press.