Investigations underway into AHS contract allegations: MLA Hunter

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
editor@tabertimes.com

Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter says he is satisfied with his government’s response to recent conflict of interest allegations involving Alberta Health Services contracts for private surgical facilities, and will wait for the investigations to be finalized before drawing any conclusions.

A recent lawsuit filed by Athana Mentzelopoulous, the former CEO of AHS, made the bombshell claim that Health Minister Adriana LaGrange and staff in Premier Danielle Smith’s office leveraged political pressure to renew or sign contracts, allegedly at inflated rates and with facilities whose “principals were connected to various government officials.”

“That’s a concerning issue, for sure, but the premier has, along with Minister LaGrange, said, ‘We invite the Auditor General to not only look into this and be fulsome in finding out what’s happened, but we would like you to expedite it, to be able to make sure that we get to the bottom of this.’ If there’s anything that’s happened with procurement or with facilities, then we want to know about it and we want to fix it.”

Hunter acknowledged that Albertans want answers, and that a process has now been initiated to determine just what might have been going on internally at AHS and in government to prompt these allegations.

“So I think that both Minister LaGrange and the premier have set the stage now for how it will build a full roll forward and be able to get to the bottom of it. The allegations that were made were serious, and they need to be taken seriously. So the premier and the minister are taking them seriously, and they’re now waiting to see what comes of those. So remember, the Auditor General is doing their research now. They’re looking into it. And there’s also a third party, an independent organization that’s also going to be looking into these things as well. So I think that’s important to know.”