'"Fu*king twat" — these are the alleged words of fired CEO of Alberta Health Services (AHS) Athana Mentzelopoulos against a senior government official, reflecting a gross lack of professionalism and acumen, said the province in its statement of defence in the AHS controversy released Thursday.
The document is a legal artillery shell aimed directly at Mentzelopoulos, who alleges her dismissal came just before she was to meet the auditor general to discuss allegedly suspicious, overpriced contracts with private surgical providers, potentially costing taxpayers millions.
Mentzelopoulos is suing the province for $1.7 million over alleged wrongful dismissal.
The AHS controversy has rocked the government for weeks — threatening credibility and providing ammunition for the NDP.
The fallout prompted multiple investigations with support from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange — the RCMP began probing on March 6, Alberta’s auditor general launched an inquiry, and a third-party review by a former Manitoba judge was commissioned.
The province's statement of claim also says Mentzelopoulos verbally berated an assistant deputy minister to the point where they refused to speak with her one-on-one.
"The plaintiff’s failure to exhibit the skills necessary to work with others and advance the policy initiatives of the province that AHS was directed to follow is why confidence was lost in her abilities and why her employment ultimately ended," said province’s statement of defence.
Mentzelopoulos’s lawsuit alleges her dismissal was orchestrated by the government in retaliation for her investigation into questionable procurement practices and inflated contracts with private surgical providers.
The province's statement of defence refutes the claims, saying her termination was part of a broader health system restructuring and not linked to any investigation.
The statement begins by denying Mentzelopoulos’s central allegation that her firing was capricious, arbitrary, or in bad faith.
The government says her dismissal was a lawful exercise of authority under her employment contract and aligned with the province’s ongoing restructuring of AHS, a process initiated well before her tenure. It argues Mentzelopoulos was appointed with a clear mandate to oversee the transition, including the shift of procurement responsibilities from AHS to Alberta Health.
The defence says her termination was necessitated by her failure to align with this strategic direction, not by any investigation she may have undertaken. The province specifically disputes Mentzelopoulos’s claim that she was fired for probing inflated contracts with private surgical facilities, like the Alberta Surgical Group (ASG).
It says no evidence supports her allegations of government interference or conflicts of interest involving officials like Marshall Smith, former chief of staff to Smith, or Jitendra Prasad, an AHS procurement official.
The defence labels these accusations as “false and baseless,” echoing statements from LaGrange and Smith.
It emphasizes that AHS’s review of procurement processes was a routine exercise, and Mentzelopoulos’s interpretation that her dismissal stemmed from this review is incorrect.
A key argument in the defence is that Mentzelopoulos’s termination followed proper procedure. The province refutes her claim that her firing by André Tremblay, the deputy minister of health and interim AHS CEO, was illegal because it bypassed the AHS board.
It says the board’s authority had been legally superseded as part of the restructuring, which culminated in its dissolution. Tremblay’s appointment as official administrator gave him the power to act unilaterally, and the defence argues that Mentzelopoulos’s dismissal was within his mandate.
The government denies that LaGrange pressured the board to fire her or that the board’s refusal prompted its ousting, framing these events as coincidental to the planned governance overhaul.
The defence also challenges Mentzelopoulos’s narrative of being pressured to sign overpriced contracts. It argues the shift of contract negotiation authority to Alberta Health in October 2024 — via a ministerial directive from LaGrange — was a policy decision to standardize rates and improve efficiency, not a reaction to Mentzelopoulos’s actions.
The province contends her refusal to sign contracts, such as the ASG extension, reflected a misunderstanding of her role during the transition, not a principled stand against impropriety.
It denies these contracts were inflated or that private providers like ASG were unfairly favoured, asserting that rates were benchmarked against industry standards.
Regarding Mentzelopoulos’s forensic audit and internal investigation, the defence minimizes their significance.
It claims these efforts were not authorized by the AHS board or Alberta Health and exceeded her scope as CEO.
"The plaintiff weaves a story that she had uncovered much impropriety in the procurement practices of AHS — an entity she was hired to lead — but fails to disclose the basic fact that the independent investigator she had hired and which had investigated for months, failed to uncover any wrongdoing during her tenure," said the province in its statement.'