The company’s CEO also worked closely with the wife of the minister in charge of the grant program at the time
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
A company that received millions of Ontario taxpayer dollars from the Skills Development Fund is run by a dentist whose clinic’s clientele has included members of Premier Doug Ford’s family, according to eight well-placed sources, and the clinic’s website.
The premier said Thursday that while he and his children don’t go to John Maggirias’s dental clinic near his family home, his brother’s children might.
“I’m sure, maybe one of them, but I don’t know,” the premier said when asked by The Trillium about the dentist’s claim that he treats the Ford family.
The eight sources — including two who’ve worked in Progressive Conservative politics, four who’ve worked with Maggirias, and two from the dental sector more broadly — said Maggirias often boasted about his connections to the Ford family.
His clinic’s website does too. “We want you to feel as comfortable and relaxed as the Ford family has during their visits with us,” it says.
The sources were promised anonymity over their concerns about potential reprisal.
Screenshot of jmdental.ca/services
Dentacloud, another of Maggirias’s companies, got over $2 million from the Skills Development Fund (SDF) in 2023. Dentacloud, a dental practice sales brokerage, is registered at the same office as Maggirias’s practice, JM Dental, in Etobicoke. The two businesses also share some employees.
On Thursday, the premier said he had nothing to do with Dentacloud getting money from the Skills Development Fund.
“I don’t get involved in all of the decisions,” said Ford. “I don’t believe in micromanaging.”
Dentacloud’s chief operating officer, Edward Kwan, previously told The Trillium that the SDF grant it received helped it provide “more than 50 hours of specialized training” to “349” dental industry workers, leading to “over 70 hires.”
Before a Trillium reporter asked Ford in person about whether members of his family had been dental clients of Maggirias’s, neither Maggirias nor Kwan, who also works for JM Dental, had responded to similar questions asked via email.
Around when Maggirias opened his Etobicoke clinic in 2013, then-mayor of Toronto Rob Ford, the premier’s late brother, and other members of his family also attended an event to mark the occasion, as photos on JM Dental’s Facebook page show.
Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto at the time, cutting a ribbon at JM Dental, around when it opened in September 2013. JM Dental Facebook photo
Maggirias has also crossed paths with the premier at least a few times in recent years.
Maggirias — who has made over $20,000 in donations to Progressive Conservative causes since 2022, according to data kept by Elections Ontario — spoke alongside Ford at a political fundraiser for his party early that year.
“I want to thank everyone here today. Obviously, this event is here because we all believe in Big Blue and we believe in doing things the right way,” said Maggirias in a video taken at the event in March 2022, a few months before the provincial election in June of that year.
“I know you’re superstitious, so I’ll knock the wood,” he said, turning to Ford and knocking on a table. “But I’m pretty confident that we’re going to be looking good after this election as well.”
After his remarks, the premier gave his cell phone number to the crowd. Ford handed Maggirias a PC-branded toque and another clothing item and then added, “I have a 1-800 number in case my number (unintelligible) …. My 1-800 number is 1-800-CALL-DR-JOHN.”
The premier’s office published photos on its Flickr page showing Ford and Maggirias together at the grand opening of another dentistry clinic on Oct. 23, 2023.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford with dentist and businessman John Maggirias (right) and Kate Bartz (left), wife of former labour minister Monte McNaughton, at a dental industry announcement on Oct. 10, 2023. Premier of Ontario Photography (Flickr)
Maggirias was also a part of a “dental roundtable” that Ford arranged to chat with on June 10, 2024, according to the premier’s calendars and other records.
Dentacloud was awarded the taxpayer-funded grant by former labour minister Monte McNaughton’s office. At the time, Maggirias worked closely with McNaughton’s wife as part of another organization that they were both involved with, as The Trillium previously reported.
Kate Bartz, McNaughton’s wife, previously said in an email that she “never discussed the Skills Development Funding program and I never advocated on behalf of any recipient at any time.”
Ford replaced McNaughton with David Piccini when the former labour minister left cabinet and elected politics in the fall of 2023.
Piccini’s office then extended another $3.8 million in SDF funding to Dentacloud. The company ultimately declined the latter grant, however. Kwan, Dentacloud’s COO, said the company “decided to focus on other strategic priorities and did not take the funding.”
Dentacloud’s and Maggirias’s LinkedIn pages say they’ve brokered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of dental practice sales.
The company’s website advertises that its “AI-powered valuation tool ensures (dentists) know what (their) practice is worth, and our extensive network of dental service organizations, private equity, dental partnership organizations, and individual buyers means you’ll receive competitive offers quickly.”
Dentacloud is among the few dental businesses that have received taxpayer funds from the Ministry of Labour under the Ford government. Another company, which lobbyists for listed Dentacloud as its “subsidiary” in filings to the federal registry, also received about $5.1 million from the ministry over the last couple of years. The funding that it, Carlo Biasucci’s Elite Practice business, was granted came from a different program than the Skills Development Fund, according to Piccini’s spokesperson.
Biasucci’s consulting company helps dentists grow their practices, according to its website. Biasucci also worked closely with McNaughton’s wife through the same dental organization as Maggirias.
The Biasuccis are prolific PC donors. Carlo’s father’s construction business, which Carlo is not involved in, received $3 million from the Skills Development Fund in the most recent funding round.
A list containing the vast majority of the over 1,000 Skills Development Fund training grants given out by the Ford government to date shows that only one other business clearly aimed at the dental sector has received funding from the SDF. Ford’s PCs’ campaign manager’s lobbying firm lobbied for it.
The Skills Development Fund has been the focal subject of controversy for the Ford government this fall. Since its creation in 2021, the labour minister’s office — under McNaughton and then Piccini — has given out over $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars to hundreds of grant recipients, including labour organizations, not-for-profits, companies and municipalities to support their workforces and provide training.
The Skills Development Fund has become one of the Ford government’s favourite initiatives, with Ford saying a couple of months ago that it’s “the best investment we’ve ever done in the province.”
In stories dating back to September, The Trillium has revealed numerous ties between Skills Development Fund recipients and Ford government officials, including the premier and both labour ministers whose offices have chosen the grant recipients.
Broader analyses of SDF recipients have also shown that PC donor-led organizations, groups that endorsed the party in the recent provincial election, or which have hired lobbyists with connections to the Ford government, have been major beneficiaries.
Ontario’s auditor general, Shelley Spence, described the Skills Development Fund as “not fair, transparent or accountable,” in a report released on Oct. 1. Spence’s office found that, under both McNaughton and Piccini, the labour minister’s office opted against granting funding from the program to hundreds of applicants that non-partisan Labour Ministry officials gave “high” scores to, in favour of lower-ranked proposals.
—With files from Jessica Smith Cross
