Sarah Hoffman  James Snell Western Standard
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Alberta NDP call for sacking of health minister, again

'It's clear that they are incompetent and reckless'

James Snell

The Alberta NDP on Thursday repeated their call for the firing of Health Minister Adriana LaGrange over controversy at AHS involving alleged corruption in the procurement of health services — notably with private surgical facilities.

"The only acceptable thing to do at this point is to fire the minister so that we can ensure that we have somebody there who is actually going to take the health-care boundaries seriously and not care more about their own political future," said Alberta NDP Shadow Minister for Health Sarah Hoffman in a press conference.

"It's clear that they are incompetent and reckless."

The former CEO of AHS, Athana Mentzelopoulos, was fired after less than 14 months in her role, alleging she was dismissed after refusing to sign off on contracts with private surgical facilities that she believed were overpriced and potentially corrupt.

Her lawyer's letter suggests she was pressured by senior government officials, including the former chief of staff to Premier Danielle Smith, to approve the contracts.

The matter is currently being investigated by the auditor general. The NDP have called for RCMP involvement.

Under Smith, Alberta has been restructuring AHS, changing its role to primarily hospital management and creating four new specialized health agencies. The overhaul has been criticized for causing chaos and inefficiency.

Hoffman is also demanding the UCP stop new private surgery expansion and instead provide residents with care in public hospitals.  

"The UCP government has paused negotiations with these private surgical centres at the heart of the premier’s CorruptCare scandal," said the NDP in a statement, noting it also wants a judicial inquiry to fully investigate the AHS controversy.

The NPD had its own controversy with AHS when it was in power. The CBC revealed allegations of political interference by Hoffman involving micromanagement and political ideology repeatedly trumping evidence-based decision-making. The AHS CEO at the time resigned.

When asked by the Western Standard about the matter, Hoffman responded, "I'm very proud to put my record up against Adriana LaGrange. At the very beginning of the time when I was health minister, we were implementing a platform that we had a democratically elected mandate to implement, and that included stopping the privatization of lab and laundry services. And I know that the CEO who left on her own terms wasn't happy with that, but we had a democratically elected mandate to make sure that we protected public healthcare."

Note: Premier Danielle Smith and LaGrange are holding a 2 p.m. MST press conference on the issue. Check back with the Western Standard for the story.