Millions of dollars were paid in severance packages by the Alberta government and Alberta Health Services in 2022, including more than $800,000 to the province's former top doctor and AHS CEO as part of the governing United Conservative Party's health-care reform.
The figures were revealed Friday with the publishing of the province's so-called sunshine list, or annual salary and severance disclosure.
First came the firing of AHS' president and CEO, Dr. Verna Yiu, in April 2022. Jason Copping, then Alberta's health minister, said "renewed leadership" at the provincial health agency would help execute "an ambitious agenda to improve and modernize the health system."
Yiu's contract was set to expire in June 2023. At the time of her firing, AHS said Yiu received a severance package that equalled her annual salary of about $574,000.
In total, she ended up being paid a total severance package of $660,000, calculated according to her contract.
Yiu's package was by far the largest of 23 paid out by AHS in 2022, which totalled more than $3.6 million.
Over the summer and fall of 2022, Jason Kenney would quit as leader of the United Conservative Party after receiving a slight majority in a leadership review, and Danielle Smith would win his spot, promising to replace Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw with a team of public health advisors.
One month later, the provincial government announced a new interim top doctor.
Hinshaw had been appointed to the role in January 2019 for a fixed term ending in January 2024.
According to her termination letter, she will be paid a severance of $181,800. Only a fraction of that – $20,000 – was paid out in 2022, according to the sunshine list. The rest was paid out in early 2023 and will be disclosed next year, an Alberta Health spokesperson confirmed.
- Doctors call for investigation over revocation of Indigenous health job offer to Hinshaw
Hinshaw, as chief medical officer of health, earned a salary of $323,000, plus $118,500 in cash benefits like overtime and vacation and $8,700 in non-cash benefits like health coverage, in 2022. She was the eighth-highest paid employee listed in the disclosure, following Alberta's medical examiners and an executive council deputy minister.
Dr. Mark Joffe, who was named Alberta's new chief medical officer of health, was paid a salary of $460,300 by AHS in 2022. Before he was made Alberta's top doctor, he served as the vice president and medical director for Cancer Care Alberta clinical support services.
On Nov. 17, 2022, the Alberta government carried on with its restructuring of AHS, firing its part-time board and hiring Dr. John Cowell to be the agency's administrator.
Cowell was paid $120,000 by AHS in 2022.
- Cowell contract to administer Alberta Health Services extended to end of year
The full salary and severance disclosure lists for government employees and Alberta Health Services employees are publicly available online.
