Alberta Premier Smith's blame on health agency chilling: emergency doctor

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith provides an update on what steps the government is taking related to allegations by former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos, in Calgary, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

EDMONTON — The former head of the Alberta Medical Association says Premier Danielle Smith's latest finger pointing at the province's front-line health agency has created a "draconian" chill among workers.

Dr. Paul Parks, an emergency physician, says he's heard from scores of health workers across Alberta who felt intimidated by the premier's harsh critique this week of Alberta Health Services.

“From front-line physicians, nurses, health-care workers, up to senior leadership — everybody heard the premier of the province saying that they suck, that they don't do a good job and that they're not valuable," he said Thursday.

Some have even felt too intimidated to engage with his social media posts for fear of losing their jobs, he said.

"We're going to find ourselves in a situation in Alberta where there's nobody willing to speak out and to actually try to advocate for patients in the system, because it's that draconian."

Smith has denied any wrongdoing in response to allegations of government interference in lucrative medical contracts.

At a news conference Wednesday, she accused AHS leadership of stymieing the government's mission to expand publicly funded, private surgical delivery. She also said AHS's internal contracting processes are too opaque.

In a lawsuit filed last week, the former head of AHS, Athana Mentzelopoulos, alleged she was fired for looking into questionable contracts pushed by government officials as high up as the premier's office.

The suit alleges government officials pressured her to sign off on contracts with surgical facilities at unjustified, inflated prices, potentially leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for private clinic owners.

Smith said she and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange weren't involved in awarding the contracts at the centre of allegations, and the premier accused AHS leadership of stalling.

The government is in the middle of massive restructuring that would see four new governing health agencies in place of AHS, with AHS reduced to a service provider.

Smith said AHS would rather keep all surgeries in its hospitals, "either because of ideology, or to protect their interests."

Although Smith and LaGrange didn't name Mentzelopoulos on Wednesday, Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said the implication was clear.

"They implied that she was let go because she was dragging her feet on a government priority and wasn't giving information to the health minister as requested," he said.

Sam Blackett, the premier's press secretary, declined to clarify who specifically in AHS management the premier was accusing of being resistant to change.

Blackett told The Canadian Press late Thursday the premier's comments the day before still stand, and pointed to her claim that "from the onset of our health plan to refocus health care, AHS leadership has always shown us resistance."

The government plans for AHS to conduct an internal review, along with an investigation by an unnamed external third party.

Dan Scott, the lawyer for Mentzelopoulos, rejected the implication that she stood against chartered surgical facilities and was resisting expansion.

In an email, he said concerns Mentzelopoulos raised last year were about making sure there was proper due diligence before finalizing the contracts for two new chartered surgical facilities in Red Deer and Lethbridge.

Mentzelopoulos also alleges in the lawsuit that high-ranking staff in the Health Ministry, as well as Smith’s former chief of staff Marshall Smith, pressured her to fire AHS employees who were critical of the government.

The lawsuit alleges Marshall Smith called Mentzelopoulos multiple times last summer, demanding certain employees be fired because “'powerful people' were upset and angry” over their social media activity.

One employee was political podcaster and paramedic Nate Pike, who is now facing a $6-million defamation lawsuit from one of the companies at the heart of the scandal, MHCare.

That company's ill-fated $70-million contract to import children’s pain medication in 2022 resulted in delivery of 30 per cent of the order.

Multiple United Conservative Party cabinet ministers have said they accepted luxury box suite tickets to Edmonton Oilers playoff games last year courtesy of MHCare and its CEO, Sam Mraiche.

The Mentzelopoulos lawsuit alleges Marshall Smith told her if she didn’t fire Pike she would “look very bad” and face “consequences.”

“This type of call from Smith was not unique,” the lawsuit says, adding Mentzelopoulos had also been pressured by a deputy minister to fire from AHS three "purported critics” of the government.

The lawsuit alleges the premier's former chief of staff also called Mentzelopoulos about an anonymous X account, using the name Hansard the Cat, that had been critical of the government.

The lawsuit alleges Marshall Smith outlined steps to be taken to determine the identity of the person, such as hiring private detectives.

Marshall Smith left the government last fall. Last week, he said the allegations were "outrageous and false" and that he's eager to meet with investigators.

MHCare's lawyer has said any allegations of wrongdoing by the company are "unwarranted and unjustified."

Parks said some health workers "have seen their colleagues fired and walked out the door" for engaging with social media commentary.

He added the government can't investigate itself or get to the bottom of all the allegations, including worker intimidation.

"No one body can do all that — unless it's truly a judicial public inquiry — and nobody will have any faith in the outcome," he said.

The premier has long railed against AHS, criticizing it for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and for being bloated with too much middle management.

Parks said AHS isn't the same agency it was before the premier took office, replacing the board twice and the CEO three times.

Bratt said the premier's attempt to reframe the narrative missed the mark by casting blame on AHS for getting in the way of health reform.

“This isn’t about reforming. This is about political interference in health-care contracts," he said.

Alberta's auditor general is also looking into contracting and procurement at both AHS and the health department.

While Premier Smith has resisted calls for a judicial public inquiry, Bratt said eventually her government may not have a choice.

"I just believe they're delaying the inevitable."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025.

Lisa Johnson and Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press