Mayor Rob Ford is attending his first meeting of big city mayors this morning.

In the three years he has been Mayor, Ford has never bothered with the meetings. He has dismissed them as a waste of taxpayer’s money.

But there is $14-billion in infrastructure funding available from Ottawa over ten years, and Ford says he wants to make sure Toronto gets its fair share. He says Toronto needs the money to help clear the repair backlog in public housing and build more subways. He also wants to gauge support among the other mayors to keep home mail delivery.

Despite his past criticism of the mayors’ meetings, and a statement from Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre that he didn’t want to have anything to do with Ford, Toronto’s embattled mayor says he hasn’t been snubbed by anyone so far today. He says everyone has been kind.

Ford also answered a question he wouldn’t give to Toronto media yesterday: has he done drugs since the infamous crack video. He says, no he hasn’t.