Ontario Dental Company Received $2 Million from Skills Growth Fund Amidst Concerns of Political Connections
A dental practice brokerage, Dentacloud, received $2 million in funding from ontario’s Skills Development Fund (SDF), a program recently scrutinized for its allocation process and ties too Progressive Conservative (PC) donors. The funding was initially earmarked for a larger $5 million project,but Dentacloud ultimately “decided to focus on othre strategic priorities and did not take the funding.”
Dentacloud, alongside Maggirias, advertises its ability to facilitate dental practice sales, claiming to have brokered deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The company’s website highlights an ”AI-powered valuation tool” and a network of buyers including dental service organizations, private equity firms, and individual purchasers, promising dentists competitive offers.
The funding received by Dentacloud is part of a larger pattern identified by The Trillium. Another company, Elite Practice, which lists Dentacloud as a “subsidiary” in federal lobbying filings, received approximately $5.1 million from the Ministry of Labor through a separate program. Elite Practice, owned by Carlo Biasucci, provides consulting services to help dentists grow their practices.
Notably, Biasucci has a connection to Labour Minister Monte McNaughton‘s family, having worked with McNaughton’s wife through the same dental organization as Maggirias. The Biasucci family is also a notable donor to the PC party; Carlo’s father’s construction business received $3 million from the SDF in the latest funding round, despite Carlo not being involved in the business.
The SDF,established in 2021,has distributed over $1.3 billion to various recipients, including labour organizations, non-profits, companies, and municipalities, to support workforce training. It has become a key initiative for the Ford government, with Premier Ford calling it “the best investment we’ve ever done in the province.”
Though,The Trillium‘s investigations have revealed numerous connections between SDF recipients and Ford government officials. A recent report from Ontario’s Auditor General, Shelley Spence, found the SDF to be “not fair, transparent or accountable.” Spence’s office discovered that the Labour minister’s office, under both McNaughton and his successor, Piccini, frequently bypassed applicants with high scores from non-partisan ministry officials in favor of lower-ranked proposals.
The Dentacloud funding is one of only a few SDF grants awarded to businesses specifically within the dental sector. Another recipient in the dental field also had ties to a lobbying firm connected to Ford’s PCs’ campaign manager.
This report is based on information published in The Trillium (https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/the-trillium-investigations/groups-led-by-pc-donors-received-majority-of-recent-ontario-training-funds-11372766) and (https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/politics/group-training-workers-for-rob-fords-favourite-nightclub-owner-got-65m-in-provincial-skills-development-funding-11232085).
