Doug Ford's appointment schedule revealed through freedom of information request

Unlike his predecessors as premier of Ontario, Doug Ford is not providing the media with a daily itinerary of hispublic events. SoCBCNews sought and obtained Ford's appointment schedule, using the province's freedom of information laws.

The documents provided by the cabinet office list Ford's meetings both at Queen's Park and elsewhere for his first three months in office, from his June 29 swearing-in until Oct. 1.

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The schedule shows Ford hada briefing with his top staff entitled "Plan to engage US governors" one week after taking office. Ford then had phone calls with the governors of 10 U.S. states from mid-July until mid-August as NAFTAnegotiations dominated the news.

However, Ford's calls with governors then all but ceased, with only one (a repeat call with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder) shown on his itinerary in the following six weeks, before the new U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal was reached at the end of September.

Ford met five times in the three-month period with the U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft, according to the documents. Government officials say Ford has long had a good working relationship with Craft.The ambassador and her husband count Ford and his wife, Karla, as friends.

Many of the events on Ford's itinerary were publicized, including his July meetings with Toronto Mayor John Tory, his August roundtable withchief economists, and his visit to the Ottawa area following a tornado in September.

However, Ford has had other meetings that have not been made public.Among the notable people Ford has met privately, according to his itinerary:

• Galen Weston Jr., executive chairman and CEO of LoblawCompanies Ltd. (Aug. 14).
• Darryl White, chief executive officer of BMOFinancial Group (Sept 12).
• FrankKlees, a former PCMPPnow registered as a lobbyist (July 6 and Aug 17).
• Mike McCormack, president of Toronto Police Association (July 28).
• JerryDias, president of Unifor(Sept. 8).

Ford met three times in the summer with Toronto city councillor Cesar Palacio, with two of the meetings happening before Ford's plan to slash the size of Toronto city council became public in late July.

On Sept, 26, Ford met his nephew, Toronto city councillor Michael Ford, along with Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve ClarkandKathy Milsom, the CEO of Toronto Community Housing

He also met in August with Coun. Vince Crisanti, whose ward forms part of Ford's Etobicoke North riding. The records do not show Ford holding meetings with any of the 41 other Toronto councillors in that three-month period as the debate over the number of council seats raged.

The appointment schedule shows frequent meetings with his handpicked adviser on healthcare, Dr. RuebenDevlin, including one meeting in July in which the topic was Ontario Medical Association negotiations.

Ford had a briefing on Sept. 20 about the master beer framework, alegal agreementbetween the province and Brewer's Retail (the Beer Store) that sets out the rules for beer sales in Ontario. The contract, which is in effect until 2025, does not allow for beer to be sold from corner stores, which is a key promisethe Ford government made in the Throne Speech.

Ford met with members of the Canadian Association of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine on Aug. 14. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners are regulated by a professional college established under provincial law. Procedures such as acupuncture are not covered by OHIP.

Ford's itinerary also shows separate meetings in September with Robert Foster,president and CEO of Capital Canada Ltd., with John Fleming, vice-president and general managerof performance infrastructure at Johnson Control, and with George Hatzis, described by the premier's office as a long-time friend. The topicof each meetingwas not indicated

Ford's spokesperson is defending the government's refusal to provide Ford's full public itinerary to the media in advance.

"The premier's office informs the media of public events that are photo opportunities or where he will be taking questions from the media, and the premier regularly informs the public about his daily meetings through his social media feeds," said Ford's director of media relations, SimonJefferies, in an email toCBCNews.

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New DemocratMPPPeterTabunssays the Ford government is undermining the media and the opposition bynot providing Ford's daily schedule.

"How do you hold a government to account if you don't know what it's doing?" said Tabunsin an interview withCBCNews."It speaks to a very closed anduntransparentand unresponsive government."

Tabunsis concerned that only "insiders" are getting meetings with Ford.

"From what you've indicated, he's just continuing to travel in this narrow circle of business and political friends, seeing what they're concerned about, what interests they want looked after," Tabuns said. "So how is this helping the people of Ontario?"

Some appointments on Ford's schedule were redacted from the documents provided on the grounds that they were "not responsive" to the freedom of information request. That includes Ford's schedule the evening of Aug. 23, when he was in full view of the nation giving a speech at the opening ceremony of the Conservative Party of Canada convention in Halifax.