Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has confirmed a Western Standard exclusive that her chief of staff Marshall Smith would be retiring from public service in October. Over the past two years, Marshall has served as chief of staff in the Office of the Premier of Alberta (OPA). “It’s has been an honour to work with Marshall — I and our entire province owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for his service to Alberta,” tweeted the premier on Tuesday.“With a background serving in the mental health and addiction field, Marshall came to Alberta with the goal of implementing the most comprehensive change in mental health and addiction policy anywhere in the world.”.She said the Alberta Recovery Model that he created focuses on providing people with mental illnesses and addictions with easy access to treatment and recovery.After countless achievements, the premier said the Alberta Recovery Model is gaining international recognition and sweeping Canada as the common sense approach to address mental illnesses and addictions. Without his vision and knowledge, she predicted this shift would have been impossible. She said countless lives have been saved and improved because of his commitment and service to Alberta. As proof, she acknowledged deaths because of opioid addictions are down 53% in June of this year compared to June of last year. At the moment, she said she will “look forward to continuing to work with Marshall on the Alberta Recovery Model for mental health and addictions and hope he has the opportunity to assist other governments across the country in building that model in their provinces.” She added doing so will save lives. Since January, the premier said she and Smith have been working on transition planning to ensure continuity in the OPA. And she confirmed another Western Standard tidbit on who the replacement shall be.“Rob Anderson who has served as executive director of the Premier’s Office for the last two years will become my Chief of Staff effective by the end of the month,” she said. Marshall said on Monday the premier would soon have a new chief of staff..EXCLUSIVE: Smith’s chief of staff on way out.He confirmed to the Western Standard he would be retiring from his position in the near future, but he would not specify a date. Western Standard sources said Anderson would be named the new chief of staff.
