TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford is defending his government’s skills-development funding system that allows a minister to hand-pick recipients against the advice of bureaucrats, even after referring an audit of one company to the police.

Labour Minister David Piccini has come under sustained fire from opposition parties calling for his resignation since an auditor general’s report found his office has been heavily involved in selecting projects under the $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund – and has doled out money to applicants ranked low by bureaucrats without documenting why.

Ford said Monday he is continuing to support Piccini and suggested there is merit in funding projects that received low rankings from bureaucrats.

“The public service, once again, don’t have the opportunity

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