The entrepreneurship accelerator, which runs programs to help firms scale up, lost about $19 million in provincial funding and laid off 43 employees—about half of its current workforce—according to sources. OCE said only 28 people lost their jobs. (BetaKit)

Talking point: OCE is a shadow of what it was in November 2017, when it had over 120 staff. The staff reduction can be tied nearly entirely to the shift in provincial government: since Doug Ford became premier in June 2018, OCE largely stopped hiring. In November 2018, eight staff working on cleantech projects lost their jobs after the Ontario government halted the cap-and-trade program. Previous governments have used OCE as a vehicle to invest in promising companies that they hope can create jobs and economic activity in the province. From 2017 to 2018, the accelerator invested $81 million into Ontario companies. Ford’s government is in the midst of making cuts to a number of similar programs while it awaits the findings of a Jim Balsillie-led panel examining the effectiveness of organizations formed to commercialize innovations.