An MLA and former minister simply faraway from the United Conservative Get together caucus alleges the well being minister — and probably the premier — withheld data from cupboard ministers deciding the destiny of the Alberta Well being Providers board of administrators.
UCP caucus members voted Wednesday morning to expel Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, who will now sit as an unbiased MLA.
Contained in the legislative chamber on Wednesday, Guthrie tabled to the clerk a February 25, 2025, letter that he had despatched to Premier Danielle Smith on the day he resigned from cupboard as infrastructure minister.
Within the letter, he mentioned ministers attending a well being cupboard committee assembly on Jan. 30, 2025, have been “intentionally misled,” which led to the federal government firing AHS board members the subsequent day. He mentioned he couldn’t abide these actions.
“If we will normalize such deception in authorities enterprise practices, what different indiscretions could emerge?” Guthrie’s letter says.
Guthrie’s allegations come after former CEO of Alberta Well being Providers Athana Mentzelopoulos filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit towards the well being authority and Well being Minister Adriana LaGrange.
Mentzelopoulos’s lawsuit alleges she was fired partially as a result of she’d launched an investigation and forensic audit into some buying contracts and was reassessing offers she had concluded have been overpriced, which she claims had hyperlinks to authorities officers.
The auditor normal has launched a probe into the allegations, and the federal government appointed a former Manitoba decide to analyze any irregularities in AHS procurement. Guthrie informed reporters Wednesday that he has made a submission to the auditor normal as a part of the investigation.
Each LaGrange and AHS have denied Menzelopoulos’s allegations. LaGrange mentioned in a press release of defence the previous CEO wasn’t fulfilling her mandate to restructure the supply of well being care in Alberta. And AHS alleged Menzelopoulos was searching for a bigger severance fee.
Not one of the allegations have been confirmed in courtroom.
Ousted UCP member felt misled
Mentzelopoulos’s rebuttal to the statements of defence says an AHS board member was involved sufficient about her findings in December 2024 that they really helpful she take the knowledge to the RCMP. The RCMP has since confirmed it’s investigating.
Then-deputy well being minister Andre Tremblay fired Mentzelopoulos on January 8.
LaGrange fired the AHS board members on Jan. 31 and changed the board with Tremblay as official administrator.
On Feb. 12, Smith mentioned the primary she heard of allegations of wrongdoing in well being contracting was in early February reporting by the Globe and Mail.
Guthrie’s Feb. 25 letter to the premier alleges that LaGrange, and probably Smith, knew about procurement points with AHS and Alberta Well being in January, earlier than the AHS board was fired, “but you intentionally misled our lowered quorum Well being Cupboard Committee (HPGCC) on January thirtieth,” the letter mentioned.
“This deception resulted within the dismissal of the AHS board.”
Opposition Home chief Christina Grey questioned the premier about Guthrie’s letter on the finish of query interval within the legislature on Wednesday.
In response, Smith mentioned the federal government knew the previous AHS CEO had claimed totally different non-public surgical contractors have been being paid totally different costs for a similar work.
“That’s the very coronary heart of why it’s we have requested decide (Raymond) Wyant and the auditor normal to check out why that’s,” Smith mentioned. “Why does Clearpoint have a contract for $3,700 per evening, however Alberta Surgical Group has a contract for $8,300, each of which really are lower than what AHS expenses? Completely. That is why we’re attending to the underside of this.”
The premier additionally mentioned there was “nothing new” in Guthrie’s letter.
Smith referred reporters to her feedback in query interval.
LaGrange didn’t reply questions concerning the matter contained in the legislative chamber.
In response to emailed questions, Smith’s press secretarySam Blackett mentioned the Jan. 30 assembly was to allow the appointment of an interim AHS CEO and an official administrator for AHS.
“There was no data withheld from the HPGCC related to this challenge,” he mentioned.
Blackett’s assertion mentioned the province turned conscious of Mentzelopoulos’s issues in summer time 2024 however that she didn’t present substantive proof to help her allegations.
A gradual separation
Guthrie, who was first elected as a UCP MLA in 2019, had been serving as infrastructure minister since June 2023.
He had pressured his authorities to take motion inside days of Mentzelopoulos’s allegations surfacing. In February, he urged the premier to maneuver LaGrange out of the well being portfolio and hand any probably felony issues over to the RCMP, in response to a memo obtained by CBC Information.
About two weeks later, Guthrie resigned from cupboard, citing concern concerning the authorities’s procurement practices.
Though he sat on the celebration’s backbench, Guthrie confirmed in March he had been barred from attending celebration caucus conferences since Feb. 26.
On Monday, MLAs voted on an NDP movement within the legislature to name a public inquiry into allegations round well being procurement. Guthrie was the one UCP member to vote in favour, after earlier saying public servants have been being muzzled in numerous ongoing probes.
UCP caucus members met in Edmonton on Wednesday morning, and voted to take away Guthrie from caucus, celebration whip Shane Getson informed reporters.
“He vocalized that he was diametrically against the route that we’re going and that was the choice,” Getson mentioned of Guthrie.
The whip mentioned it is OK for an MLA to disagree with the path the celebration was going, so long as they specific these issues internally.
In a information launch, the UCP caucus mentioned Guthrie disagreed with colleagues that they need to await the outcomes of investigations by the auditor normal or Wyant earlier than taking any extra motion.
Guthrie informed reporters that greater than 60 per cent of caucus members voted to take away him. He mentioned criticizing the federal government comes at a price.
“I used to be asking for openness, transparency, honesty, and as an alternative of embracing that . . . the federal government has carried out the whole lot that it could actually to impede processes,” he mentioned.
Guthrie additionally accused the vast majority of his former caucus colleagues of turning a blind eye to the allegations. He mentioned most of them haven’t learn the courtroom paperwork filed in Mentzelopoulos’s lawsuit.
Getson denied UCP MLAs aren’t being attentive to the small print of the case.
Guthrie will be a part of former UCP MLA Scott Sinclair, who has been sitting as an unbiased since March, after publicly criticizing the federal government’s 2025-26 price range.
Sinclair additionally voted in favour of the movement calling for a public inquiry, and mentioned he helps Guthrie.
He informed reporters on Wednesday he was disillusioned within the premier and his former colleagues.
“It takes a variety of braveness and integrity to have the ability to take into consideration his place,” Sinclair mentioned. “Giving up a cupboard place on this world we reside in, is extraordinarily, extraordinarily brave.”
NDP chief Naheed Nenshi mentioned Smith is not listening to elected members and retains them at nighttime.
“Whenever you deal with your caucus members like mushrooms, you would possibly discover a poison one,” he mentioned.
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