{"id":87960,"date":"2026-02-13T22:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/892247405"},"modified":"2026-02-13T22:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:25:44","slug":"tech-company-demands-100-million-from-ontario-in-battle-over-audit-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/tech-company-demands-100-million-from-ontario-in-battle-over-audit-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech company demands $100-million from Ontario in battle over audit, contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img data-opt-id=758893364  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=75&resize=75&ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=100&resize=100&ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=150&resize=150&ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=240&resize=240&ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=320&resize=320&ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=500&resize=500&ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=640&resize=640&ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=800&resize=800&ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=1024&resize=1024&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=1280&resize=1280&ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1&w=1600&resize=1600&ssl=1 1600w\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&width=1200&height=800&quality=80&smart=true&ssl=1\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<figure class=\"BodyImage__BodyImagePhoto-sc-14nv9tx-0 vKplZ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CQHVARNGOVDHPL5QULOU7EK6IQ.JPG?auth=7128df88e289a43815df735ed9d089e6d9ed7243122764a4ab2de4ded84176c0&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\"><span class=\"u-visually-hidden\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"c-image-figcap c-image-figcap--block\">\n<div class=\"figcap-grid\">\n<div class=\"figcap-cc\">\n<p class=\"figcap-text\"><span class=\"caption text-gmr-4\">The Ontario government filed a lawsuit against Keel, Get A-Head and five executives last month.<\/span><span class=\"credit text-gmr-5\">Eduardo Lima\/The Canadian Press<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div>\n<div class=\"default__Toolbar-sc-12lzz6r-0 grffJf article-toolbar\">\n<div class=\"tgam-popover-container tgam-toggletip-container styled-components__ToggletipWithButtonStyled-sc-onhcy6-1 dYiLYX c-button--article-toolbar article-toolbar-bookmark-menu\"><button aria-controls=\"article-toolbar-bookmark-toggletip\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" aria-label=\"Bookmark this article\" class=\"Button__StyledButton-sc-136o1ng-1 kvWUaG tgam-button tgam-button--icon-grey text-gml-2 styled-components__BookmarkButtonStyled-sc-onhcy6-2 llsWai\" data-sophi-action=\"toggle bookmark menu\" data-sophi-feature=\"article toolbar bookmark denied\" data-sophi-label=\"Save for later\" id=\"article-toolbar-bookmark-btn\" type=\"button\"><span class=\"tgam-button__content\">Save for later<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">A tech company facing both a police probe and a civil lawsuit from the Ontario government accusing it of \u201cfraudulent misrepresentation\u201d has responded with a counterclaim, saying it did nothing wrong and demanding $100-million in damages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Toronto-based Keel Digital Solutions Corp., and its subsidiary Get A-Head Inc., filed a statement of defence this week in Ontario Superior Court, accusing the government of subjecting them to a \u201cdeeply flawed\u201d audit process and then allowing the disclosure of \u201cinaccurate and misleading\u201d findings to the media, damaging their reputation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Get A-Head, which has received a total of $40-million in government payments over the past five years, operated an online mental-health counselling portal, augmented with artificial intelligence, under contracts with the province\u2019s Ministry of Colleges and Universities and the Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The outfit, which now operates as Keel Mind, has also been awarded $7.5-million in grants since 2024 from Ontario\u2019s $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund, a program that the province\u2019s Auditor-General concluded was \u201cnot fair, transparent or accountable\u201d in a report last fall. Keel Digital Solutions has previously charged that the government was using it as a \u201cscapegoat\u201d to distract from the skills-fund controversy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Last month, the government filed a lawsuit against Keel, Get A-Head and five executives, saying they misled the government about Get A-Head\u2019s performance in order to get its contracts with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities renewed. The claim also alleges that they obstructed an audit. The government demanded $25.7-million in damages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">None of the claims in either legal filing have been tested in court. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text mv-16 l-inset text-pb-8\" data-sophi-feature=\"interstitial\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/article-ontario-skills-development-fund-lawsuit\/\">Ontario sues company in Skills Development Fund controversy for millions in damages<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">In November, the office of Premier Doug Ford said it had sent the results of a forensic audit of the company\u2019s contracts with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities to the Ontario Provincial Police, which later said it was investigating. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Mr. Ford said at the time that all funding had been cut off, and his office warned senior government officials not to have any contact with Keel Digital Solutions or Get A-Head. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The lawsuit the government filed last month alleges that the companies \u201creported plainly ineligible expenses in their budgets \u2026 such as first-class airfare, international office space, and fine dining, which they hid in generic line items and presented as eligible project costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Get A-Head, the government alleged, had also been \u201csystematically misleading\u201d the government on its performance measures, including by inflating the number of students that its portal helped. The government alleged that the company wrongly counted each 20 minutes on the platform as a separate session, even for sessions with a single student that went longer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">But in their counterclaim, Keel Digital Solutions and Get A-Head say the ministry understood and had agreed that the time spent on the platform would be reported in 20-minute increments, which it says is consistent with \u201cguidelines from Canadian and Ontario mental health professionals\u201d and its own government-funded websites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">In an e-mailed statement to media on Friday, the company said the government could have learned this from a \u201cbasic Google search.\u201d It also said that 25,000 students and parents had signed a petition supporting the continuation of its counselling program, which was suspended after its funding was cancelled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">In its court filing, Get A-Head alleges that the forensic audit it faced was led by \u201cjunior auditors\u201d who \u201cdid not understand that [the company] was a for-profit entity\u201d and \u201cfailed to understand basic financial concepts.\u201d It alleges that during the audit, the company was \u201crepeatedly reassured\u201d that the probe was \u201cgoing well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The companies\u2019 court filing also says that in January, 2025, the Premier\u2019s chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, contacted Keel president and chief executive officer Rob Godfrey and \u201cexpressly represented\u201d that a new deal could be approved after the audit\u2019s completion. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The counterclaim says that \u201csenior political officials leveraged these representations to exert pressure\u201d on the company, to ensure it continued to provide its platform as it awaited the approval and \u201cto extract concessions and favours\u201d that exceeded its \u201ccontractual obligations.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Asked to comment on the counterclaim, Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for the Premier, said on Friday that \u201cany alleged conversation referenced in the document came before the concerning results of the forensic audit were known, the results of which were immediately referred to the Ontario Provincial Police.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Get A-Head was thrust into the spotlight last year amid the political storm over Ontario\u2019s Skills Development Fund, which distributes cash to employers, unions and other organizations for worker-training programs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The province\u2019s Auditor-General said that the Labour Minister\u2019s office had overridden assessments from nonpolitical bureaucrats and handed out grants to organizations that had scored poorly on their applications, while higher-scoring applicants were passed over. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Labour Minister David Piccini has publicly said that Get A-Head was among the low-scoring applicants he had chosen for funding, to support a program for police officers to use its online mental-health counselling portal. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Opposition politicians have seized on Mr. Piccini\u2019s ties to the company, after it emerged that he had attended the Paris wedding of the company\u2019s lobbyist, and once sat rinkside at a Toronto Maple Leafs game with a board member. Mr. Piccini has said he paid his own way at both events. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The province\u2019s Integrity Commissioner is investigating opposition complaints alleging that Mr. Piccini broke the legislature\u2019s ethics rules. Mr. Piccini\u2019s office has said he is assisting the commissioner\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\"><i>With a report from Laura Stone<\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\"> <\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/acceptable.html\"> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; &#047;The Canadian Press A <span class=\"match\">tech<\/span> company facing both a police &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}