NDP Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the AHS procurement controversy.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: Your party has taken to calling this a UCP corruption scandal. Given the numerous allegations have yet to be proven, what gives you confidence to label it corruption?
Rakhi Pancholi: These allegations are probably the most explosive allegations of corruption that this province has ever seen if the allegations are true. I acknowledge that they still need to be proven in court, or they need to be proven through all the investigative channels that are now going on, but these allegations go right to the heart of UCP entitlement.
They implicate both the premier and the premier’s office, as well as the minister of health, and they indicate that both the minister and the premier’s office were heavily involved in putting pressure on AHS to enter into contracts, and may have already entered into contracts, with friends of the UCP government that were at over inflated costs.
That means Alberta taxpayers were paying way more than they should have, because the contractors were friends of the UCP, for health-care services. Albertans, frankly, are desperate for improved access to health care. The wait times continue to grow. People are waiting for medical procedures. People are waiting for cancer treatment. They don’t have a family doctor.
To hear that precious taxpayer dollars for health care were being used for profits for friends of the UCP is simply unbelievable, and it’s a complete circus what’s happening right now.
MH: Now that the wrongful dismissal lawsuit has been filed, how does that change the conversation?
RP: What we’re hearing coming out of that wrongful dismissal suit are even more explosive allegations. They very directly implicate the minister of health. It says that the minister of health may have inappropriately exercised her authority to actually remove the CEO of AHS, which she didn’t technically have the authority to do.
It suggests that the minister may have deliberately put aside this investigation and removed the CEO because they did not want to pursue this investigation into these contracts. That is why we are saying today that the minister of health, Adriana LaGrange, absolutely must resign.
That Statement of Claim is rife with implications that she was directly involved in these contracts, and to stifle investigation into these contracts, and that she wrongfully terminated the former CEO. She needs to step down. She does not have the trust of Albertans, especially at a time when we need somebody focused on the health care priorities that Albertans have.
MH: You’re also calling for an RCMP investigation, and the Mounties say they are reviewing the allegations. What would tip the scales toward an actual investigation by police?
RP: I don’t think we’re the only ones who have called for an RCMP investigation. As we know from the allegations that have been made by the former CEO, the board of AHS, who was also fired by the UCP, was also suggesting that there was potential criminal activity. That’s going to be up to the RCMP to determine, but in the meantime, we know that we actually need to have a fulsome public inquiry. That is another thing that we have called for.
We need to have a judicial-led public inquiry because the RCMP is going to look at issues related to criminality. We know the auditor general is already looking at this issue, he’s going to look at it from a perspective of government efficiency and procurement practices. We’ve also made a request to the Ethics Commissioner to look into potential conflict of interest.
All of those investigations are very specific to what the legislation and authority that those officers have. We say Albertans deserve a public inquiry into all of these allegations, because, quite frankly, Albertans deserve answers.
This goes right to the heart of the issues that Albertans care about, which is health care. It goes right to the heart of the entitlement that this government has when it comes to taxpayer dollars, and that their focus and their priorities are not on Albertans, but on enriching their friends at the end of the day.
MH: If after all that’s complete, the government comes out and says ‘There’s nothing to see here’, what then?
RP: We’ll wait to see if that happens, but in the meantime, it’s a very difficult thing for Danielle Smith to try to convince Albertans that she knew nothing about what’s going on. I think Albertans are smarter than that, and know better than that.
This is a this is a premier who, since she became premier almost two years ago, has made it very clear that she was going to be very directly involved in AHS. She has now removed the CEO multiple times from AHS, she has fired the complete board twice, she has been heavily involved in everything that AHS has been doing. She said she was going to do that, she cannot now claim to not know what’s happening there as well.
The implication is, from these allegations, that her staff, her right hand person, was directly involved in a lot of these issues, and was the one applying pressure to sign these contracts. Plus, there is a track record here. The private companies that are engaged in these allegations, the ones who are alleged to have profited, the friends of the UCP, this is the third time that they have been implicated in a government scandal related to an inappropriate relationship and perhaps money being spent and given to them.
There was the Turkish Tylenol incident, there was the hockey tickets to the playoffs, and now there’s this. The premier has all along maintained this close relationship with these companies and these individuals. She cannot now claim to say she is completely unaware of what was happening. She’s the premier of Alberta. She’s accountable. She’s accountable for what happens with her minister, she’s accountable for what happens to Albertans. They deserve answers.
MH: Your party is demanding the legislature be immediately convened. What would make that necessary at this junction? What would that accomplish?
RP: The legislature is about transparency for government. The whole intention of having our government in our legislature is so that the premier, the minister of health, and all government MLAs, can ask questions and answer questions.
The premier has not stepped foot inside Alberta in weeks. She’s only given one cursory tweet and one small press conference, but she has not had to face questions from Albertans, and that’s precisely what MLAs are there to do. That’s what opposition MLAs are there to do. We’re here to represent our constituents, but frankly, that’s what government MLAs are there to do as well. They deserve to have answers for their constituents, so we’re saying the premier must reconvene the legislature to answer to Albertans.
