‘I was not involved’: Smith, LaGrange respond to Alberta health corruption allegations

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange continue to deny any involvement in allegations of government interference in lucrative medical contracts in the province — with Smith defending her health minister and saying she will not be removed from her position.

The pair spoke in Calgary on Wednesday afternoon as questions continue to swirl on who knew what and when, after a report last week alleged corruption related to some provincial health contracts.

The allegations were made public thanks to a $1.7 million wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed by former Alberta Health Services (AHS) CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos, who claims she was fired for digging deeper into how certain companies were getting government contracts.

Smith says she was only involved in government policy decisions and had no involvement in negotiating or procuring contracts.

“I was not involved in these procurement decisions,” said Smith. “If mistakes were made they will be corrected.”

She says the contracts questioned in the allegations have not been finalized.

The premier says her government is seeking a third party to review the processes and find out if there was any wrongdoing with work being done to find someone to lead it. She offered four to six months as a timeline for when the review would be made available to the public.

Mentzelopoulos, in her statement of claim, alleges LaGrange fought and ultimately fired her after she balked at signing off on excessively lucrative contracts between the government and private surgery clinics. She also alleges government interference and conflicts of interest in contracts awarded to medical supply company MHCare.

LaGrange says the allegations are false and said Wednesday she will be filing a statement of defence in the coming weeks as she prepares to “vigorously” defend herself.

The health minister says she learned of issues last summer and repeatedly asked Mentzelopoulos for evidence to support her claims. Smith says she wasn’t made aware of specifics until months later in the fall.

“I did not bring it to the premier because it was internal allegations,” said LaGrange. “These were allegations that were unsubstantiated and required much more investigation.”

LaGrange reiterated that Mentzelopoulos was not fired due to a review of certain contracts and that all recent personnel changes were part of the province’s planned transition to the newly formed Acute Care Alberta agency.

Smith shuffles deputy minister amid allegations

Smith announced Wednesday that she has appointed Darren Hedley as the new deputy minister of health and says interim AHS CEO Andre Tremblay, who was juggling both roles, will stay on solely as the interim head of AHS.

On Friday, a memo from Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie was made public, in which he called for LaGrange to be shifted to another cabinet portfolio and for Tremblay to move from his position.

Guthrie is one of multiple cabinet ministers who have admitted they accepted luxury box suite tickets to Edmonton Oilers playoff games courtesy of MHCare and CEO Sam Mraiche.

MHCare was awarded a $70-million deal in 2022 to secure children’s pain medication from Turkey, but the government only received 30 per cent of the order and AHS stopped using the medication over safety concerns.

‘A whole lotta nothing’

Some political experts and healthcare advocates are accusing the province of dancing around important questions during the afternoon news conference.

Mount Royal University political science professor Keith Brownsey says the premier tried to convince the public that AHS is to blame for the scandal and left the public with more questions than answers.

“We don’t know what the third-party inquiry will be,” he says. “Will it be led by a judge? Or a lawyer that the government hires? I think Albertans deserve answers to some of the questions here.”

The Friends of Medicare organization is accusing Smith of holding a news conference to “announce nothing.”

Executive director Chris Gallaway, in a statement, repeated demands for LaGrange to resign and says Albertans will not be able to trust the results of any investigation until that happens.

NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is calling the Wednesday newser a “master class in gaslighting” and claims Smith’s story doesn’t make sense — accusing her of hiding the truth about the alleged corruption.

Nenshi has previously demanded all people named in the allegations, including Smith, LaGrange, and Tremblay, step aside from their roles during the probes. Nenshi later called for LaGrange to be fired outright and has made calls for an RCMP investigation.

Auditor general Doug Wylie has confirmed he’s begun investigating procurement and contracting processes at AHS and the department of health. He says that includes looking into chartered surgical facilities, medications and COVID-19 personal protection equipment.

The UCP government will continue to support the auditor general’s probe in any way they can, Smith says.

AHS has said it would stop awarding contracts to firms involved in the allegations, but it has not provided a list of those companies.

With files from Dione Wearmouth and The Canadian Press