Alberta’s premier and health minister didn’t answer questions Thursday, amid growing calls that they step aside while an investigation into government interference is conducted.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday by the former head of Alberta Health Services (AHS) alleges wide-scale corruption within the organization—all orchestrated by high-ranking members of the UCP.
But despite some Albertans asking for answers and accountability, the pair didn’t speak to reporters one day after Danielle Smith took just two questions on the subject.
The leader of the opposition NDP isn’t impressed.
“I need a thesaurus because I’m tired of using the words shocking, inappropriate and unbelievable,” Naheed Nenshi told CTV News.
“These allegations are so serious, we cannot trust this minister to be anywhere near this investigation.
“She’s got to be fired.”
It’s a scandal that’s been bubbling for the past week and one that seems to have reached a boiling point with the lawsuit filed Wednesday.
In the statement of claim, Athana Mentzelopoulos lays out, in detail, allegations of a health-care system that rewarded friends of the Smith government—and attacked critics.
None of the claims have been proven in court.
“This lawsuit is based entirely on political interference with a supposedly independent body, overruling experts, shutting down investigations, shutting down whistleblowers and putting pressure on people to award contracts that they don’t think should be awarded that cost the taxpayer too much money,” Nenshi said.
“This is bad stuff.”
The lawsuit claims Mentzelopoulos was pressured “to terminate purported critics of the government” and that “private detectives, lawyers, and (apparently) hackers were being used to discover the identity of the person(s) posting” critically online about the government.
It names the premier’s former chief of staff and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange countless times.
Both have called the allegations false and will be filing statements of defence before the 20-day window runs out.
A short statement sent from Smith’s press secretary Thursday says she stands behind LaGrange and looks forward to her legal response.
Thursday, a minister sent out for an unrelated announcement was quick to defend the pair.
“I definitely do support the premier and the minister of health on that front,” Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said.
“We ran on health-care reform knowing that Albertans deserve better outcomes for their tax dollars invested, and so they knew that this would be challenging work.”
Inflated contract allegations
Elsewhere in the lawsuit, Mentzelopoulos alleges the province handed out inflated contracts for private clinic surgeries.
She claims taxpayer funds paid for purposely overpriced contracts with friends of the UCP government.
“Affordability and health care are the two most important issues to Albertans, so this matters,” Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams said.
“It’s not just a news story or an opportunity to play ‘gotcha.’ This is something that really matters.”
For now, those claims are just that, and Albertans have watched some politicians duck behind the possibility that the lawsuit will go to court as a reason they can’t say much.
There is an auditor general’s investigation that will take place—one Smith promises the province will co-operate with.
But Nenshi calls that “the government investigating itself” and wants to see a third-party review.
Williams agrees.
“An independent inquiry, where they can compel evidence and compel production of evidence, makes a lot more sense. Then, no questions can be swirling around about what information might be shared or withheld,” she said.
