Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she still has confidence in Health Minister Adriana LaGrange despite allegations involving political interference and conflict of interest in the awarding of contracts by Alberta Health Services (AHS).
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning during a trip to Washington, D.C., with Canada’s Premiers, Smith said she first became aware of the allegations against her office and the health minister when she saw reports in the media.
The allegations were outlined in a letter sent by the lawyer of former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos to the Globe and Mail.
It alleges that AHS was pressured to approve private contracts and that the former AHS CEO was fired two days before a meeting with the auditor general to discuss her concerns about private surgery facilities and procurement contracts.
The allegations are being investigated by the province’s auditor general.
“We’re interested in hearing what the auditor general has to say,” said Smith when asked about the scandal during a news conference. “We’ve already set up a shared file so that they can get all the documents that we have to see if there is any wrongdoing. If there’s wrongdoing, we’d like to get to the bottom of it. And if there isn’t, we need to find out why AHS is standing in the way of our surgical site,” added Smith.
In the letter, obtained by the Globe and Mail, Mentzelopoulos alleges that throughout 2024 she was pressured by various provincial officials, including Marshall Smith, then the premier’s chief of staff, to sign off on contracts for private surgical facilities despite concerns over how much was being paid and who was benefiting.
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But Smith said she has not seen any indication of wrongdoing.
This was the first time reporters have had an opportunity to ask Smith about the scandal.
The only previous comments she made were in a social media post in which she called the allegations “troubling” and said she was asking the auditor general for an “expedited review.”
In the social media post, Smith also insisted she was “not involved in any wrongdoing” and said “any insinuation to the contrary is false, baseless and defamatory.”
The Alberta NDP are calling on the RCMP to investigate and have called on the Smith government to reconvene the legislature to deal with what it calls “allegations of corruption unlike anything this province has ever seen.”
NDP leader Naheed Nenshi has called the allegations “shocking political interference” and has insisted both the premier and health minister should step aside to allow the investigations to occur without political interference.
The letter, sent by Mentzelopoulos’ lawyer, said she had concerns with “significantly increased costs” on a contract with the firm Alberta Surgical Group.
The letter also raised allegations of a conflict of interest surrounding an AHS staffer who also had an email account with MHCare Medical.
It said the medical supply company and other firms associated with its CEO, Sam Mraiche, have done $614 million in business with the province.
MHCare Medical made headlines after it was awarded a $70-million contract to procure children’s pain medication from Turkey in 2022.
Alberta received about 30 per cent of the order despite paying the full cost, and AHS later stopped using the medication that was received because of safety concerns.
Following the medication contract, Mraiche also provided multiple cabinet ministers and government staff with luxury box tickets to Edmonton Oilers playoff games.
— With files from Kabi Moulitharan and the Canadian Press
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