Bowing to pressure, the Ontario government will soon require that groups hiring lobbyists for help getting millions of dollars from the $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund will now have to report those connections in their application, a government committee heard.

It was a ministry bureaucrat — not Premier Doug Ford nor Labour Minister David Piccini — who announced the change, expected by the end of the year.

The new lobbying rules emerged Monday during a lengthy session of the all-party public accounts committee with Piccini’s deputy minister, Jonathan Lebi, which is examining the government’s response to a scathing auditor general’s report.

Piccini has been under fire since auditor general Shelley Spence released a 42-page special report on Oct. 1 that said Piccini and his predecess

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