Alberta’s United Conservative Party government house leader says lawmakers won’t be sidetracked by allegations officials pushed the province’s front-line health agency to sign off on overpriced private medical contracts.
Legislature members will be meeting under a cloud for the start of the spring session Tuesday, almost two weeks after the former head of Alberta Health Services, Athana Mentzelopoulos, filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the province.
In the lawsuit, she alleges she was fired after looking into high-level government interference and questionable, multimillion-dollar contracts.
Government house leader Joseph Schow said Monday the sitting will see a suite of about 20 bills, including those he says will help Albertans with the rising cost of living.
Schow said he’s not concerned the lawsuit might draw the government’s attention away from its legislative agenda, pointing to priorities including health-care delivery and support for agriculture producers, the oil and gas sector and entrepreneurs.
“That is what we’re focused on, and nothing is going to distract us from that,” he said.
Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange have denied any wrongdoing in response to the allegations.
LaGrange has said the dismissal of Mentzelopoulos wasn’t linked to the former CEO’s investigation. The allegations have not been proven in court, and statements of defence have yet to be filed.
Premier Smith defends health minister amid corruption scandal, accuses Alberta Health Services staff of blocking changes
Speaking at an unrelated news conference Monday, Smith was asked whether she would order all government departments to identify potential ties to firms and individuals named in the lawsuit.
The premier didn’t commit but noted that Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie notified the province’s auditor general of a real estate deal involving one of those individuals.
Smith referenced an ongoing investigation by auditor general Doug Wylie and the government’s plan to hire a third party to help probe health-care contracting.
“What we’re looking for is any flaws in the procurement — we’re not doing a witch hunt to try to find every single transaction that every single business has done if there is no reason to look into it,” she said.
Smith has dodged repeated calls from the Opposition NDP to call a judicial-led public inquiry to get to the bottom of the allegations.
Instead, she has doubled down on her criticism of AHS, saying she doesn’t trust internal agency numbers reported last week that indicate the cost of some surgeries provided in AHS hospitals were less than half of one private surgical provider.
According to numbers cited by Smith last week, that provider was also billing thousands of dollars more per surgery than another private competitor.
Smith reiterated that private facilities are needed to ramp up surgical capacity in the province and clear a backlog of long wait-lists.
Opposition NDP house leader Christina Gray said in a statement one of the biggest questions Albertans are asking is how deep the “corrupt care” scandal goes.
“They deserve real answers and real accountability — starting with the premier addressing it directly in the legislature,” she said, adding the NDP won’t stop demanding transparency.
Schow declined to provide specifics about upcoming legislation but listed nine bills that cover everything from wildlife management rules to addiction treatment standards.
The government has pledged legislation to force adults who are deemed a danger to themselves or others into addiction treatment.
It has also promised to limit professional regulators from policing their members’ behaviour and public comments outside their professional practice.
Schow declined to confirm whether the government’s long-promised personal tax cut would be introduced as part of Thursday’s budget.