Premier shuffles deputy health minister amid allegations of corruption
By Lethbridge Herald on February 19, 2025.
Premier Danielle Smith looks on as Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange speaks Wednesday in Calgary during an update on what steps the government is taking related to allegations by former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos.
Canadian Press photoAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD & Lisa Johnson – THE CANADIAN PRESS
Premier Danielle Smith removed her government’s deputy minister of health Wednesday but bucked calls for a public inquiry into allegations of government interference in lucrative medical contracts.
Speaking to reporters in Calgary for the first time since the allegations surfaced two weeks ago, Smith said Andre Tremblay is being replaced in the Health ministry.
However, he is to continue as the head of Alberta Health Services, the province’s front-line health agency.
The former head of AHS, Athana Mentzelopoulos, alleges in a lawsuit filed a week ago that she was wrongfully dismissed by Tremblay from her job for looking into questionable contracts pushed by government officials as high up as the premier’s office.
The statement of claim alleges Mentzelopoulos was pressured by government officials to sign off on contracts with surgical facilities at unjustified, inflated prices, potentially leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for private clinic owners.
The allegations have not been tested in court, and a statement of defence has not been filed.
Smith has said she was not involved in any wrongdoing and that Health Minister Adriana LaGrange continues to have her confidence.
“To deal with surgical backlogs, Alberta Health Services followed the strategic direction provided by previous governments, signed contracts with Charter surgical facilities to help alleviate pressure on our health system and increased capacity.”
She claimed that because it has worked, they tried to expand these centres through new competitive bid processes.
“In terms of the latest RFP process for new facilities, the former CEO of Alberta Health Services made some very troubling allegations, and those allegations are serious and they are being investigated,” said Smith.
She said the Auditor General has been asked to expedite his review so that they can have answers as soon as possible.
“I also want to be clear that AHS and AHS only was in charge of conducting procurement for these surgical facility contracts and although they were awarded through an RFP process, those contracts have not yet been finalized as I understand it,” said Smith.
She said they will not be finalized until the organizations involved have been cleared of any wrongdoing.
“In terms of the review by the Auditor General, I have directed all government departments to provide the Auditor General with any information related to this matter. Our government will support the AG’s office in any way it can to expedite his investigation and I’m confident that he will get to the bottom of the allegations,” said Smith.
She added that she also has their newly appointed acting Deputy Minister of Executive Council, Chris McPherson working to retain a credible independent third party with a strong legal background capable of investigating this matter independently of government so that they can understand exactly what occurred with regards to the procurement processes in question. “Whether there was any wrongdoing or improper interference with the procurement process and why despite months of requests, AHS never brought any substantive evidence or documentation related to this matter to the minister or our government,” said Smith.
The Opposition NDP has called for the United Conservative Party government to order a judicial public inquiry to get to the bottom of the scandal.
“Our Cabinet today has made the decision to assign Darren Headley as the acting Deputy Minister of Health. Andre Tremblay will continue as the interim CEO and official Administrator of Alberta Health Services so that they can continue working with Minister Adriana LaGrange on the important work of healthcare refocusing,” said Smith.
She said that in order to be able to do that, they will be setting up a legal conflicts wall within Alberta Health Services and Alberta Health so that Minister LaGrange, the Interim AHS CEO and Official Administrator Andre Tremblay and the Acting Deputy Minister of Health, Darren Headley can all continue with the critical work of transforming AHS into an effective provider of healthcare services under the oversight of the new Alberta Acute Care Agency.
“The legal conflicts wall will ensure the complete independence of these individual investigations without the involvement of the individuals named in the former CEO statement of claim,” said Smith. “I also want to reiterate a point I made last week; I was not involved in these procurement decisions. I had nothing to do with the process decisions or the implementation. My actions were straightforward.”
She explained that the government made a policy decision to expand surgical facilities to tackle the critical issues of wait times. When there were delays in implementing those policy decisions by AHS, the minister made inquiries into the reasons for those delays, just as she would expect any minister to do whenever there are delays with the implementation of any government policy or project.
“The Minister has reported that she asked the former AHS CEO at a number of occasions from many months for information or reports on the issues that are now the subject of her statement of claim, with little or no response,” said Smith.
She said that the former CEO knew that procurement was about to move into the new procurement secretariat. If there was evidence of problems with AHS procurement, Smith said she would have liked to know why the former CEO didn’t disclose it to the minister.
“We will get to the bottom of what happened here and if there’s any wrongdoing, we will fix it immediately. If mistakes were made, they will be corrected,” said Smith.
“At the same time, I want to reassure Albertans of our resolve. We will not allow anyone in Alberta Health Services management or the NDP to frustrate the progress of improving our health system. Let me be clear, from the onset of our health plan to refocus healthcare, AHS’ leadership has always shown us resistance and it is clear that they would rather keep all surgeries in hospitals only operated by Alberta Health Services.”
Smith claimed that if that would have been the case, that would have resulted in 62,000 fewer surgeries for Albertans last year.
“We will not be intimidated by the resistance of Alberta Health Services management and others who want to protect the status quo. This is about better outcomes for Albertans, and nothing will stop us from continuing our important work,” said Smith.
She added that this is why they will continue to utilize charter surgical facilities and any other service provider who will help them get the best outcomes for Albertans.
LaGrange started her statement by saying that the accusations against her are false and while the investigation done by the Auditor General and the third party are taking place, she will be filing her own statement of defence in the coming weeks.
“As this case is now before the courts, I want to remain mindful of that process, but want to reiterate what my office has previously shared. Since learning of potential concerns with chartered surgical facilities procurement I repeatedly asked AHS for documentation to substantiate the concerns that were raised,” said LaGrange.
She said this is why she issued a directive back in December to compel AHS to share all details related to charter surgical facility contracts.
“Issuing this directive was not about shutting down the review of AHS that had started. To the contrary, it was about understanding whether there was actual evidence of problems that were raised by the former CEO of AHS, or whether AHS management was simply attempting to disrupt the growth of chartered surgical facilities in the health care system,” said LaGrange.
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I doubt that Danielle Smith and the UCP will be able to walk away from this. It isn’t going to happen very easily. I saw the press conference on this with Adriana LaGrange and Danielle Smith. Their body language was very telling.
We will get to the bottom of what happened here and if there’s any wrongdoing, we will fix it immediately. If mistakes were made, they will be corrected,”
Nah they will just fix it. Appears that AHS does need a complete revamp and after several attempts this will be the one.
Yah, maybe they can bring Musk and DOGE in to help clean up. There’s just got to be a better way to privatise health care in the province! You know, without all that democracy, public oversight nuisance.
Who’s “We”? You’re doing nothing but patting your master on the back.
I see. You mean Danielle Smith and the UCP will cover this up. Anyone who saw yesterday’s press conference from Adriana Lagrange and Danielle Smith could see they were not being honest.
In 2018, AHS was ranked among the best healthcare system administrators in the world. The UCP are trying to fix something that isn’t broken, and have made things worse.
This:
“Still struggling to control damage from Dodgy Contracts Scandal, Danielle Smith claims AHS conspired to block UCP private surgery scheme. Finally responding in person to $1.7-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit, Alberta premier attacks work of former CEO.”
http://www.albertapolitics.ca
Smith’s facial expression in the above photo is telling, the oh s$!t look.