Alberta health minister denies former AHS CEO's claims in statement of defence
CBC
Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is alleging the former CEO of Alberta Health Services was unwilling and unable to implement the government's plan to break up the health authority, became "infatuated" with her internal investigation into private surgical contracts and made "incendiary and inaccurate allegations about political intrigue and impropriety" before she was fired in January.
The claims are contained in the minister's statement of defence filed Thursday in Edmonton Court of King's Bench.
Smith has said she had no involvement in the contracting decisions.
Mentzelopoulos's allegations, the state of defence claims, were made to deflect attention from concerns about her own performance and professionalism.
The document also says Mentzelopoulos made her claims in an attempt to get a larger payout for being fired.
Mentzelopoulos said she was fired in January, days before she was set to meet with Alberta's auditor general about surgical contracts she said had links to government officials.
She alleges she was terminated, in part, because she had launched an investigation and forensic audit and was taking a second look at the prices in contracts involving the Alberta Surgical Group before extending the agreement.
Mentzelopoulos also widened the AHS investigations to include AHS procurement with medical supply company MHCare. The company won a $70 million contract in 2022 to import children's pain medication from Turkey. Most of the product has not been used.
LaGrange, in the statement of defence, said the suggestion Mentzelopoulos was fired to prevent her from speaking with the auditor general is false. The document states the province supports the auditor general investigation that's now underway.
"The plaintiff was not fired by AHS because she commenced an investigation. She was not fired as part of a conspiracy to stop an investigation," the document states.
"She was fired because she failed to perform her role as president and CEO effectively and failed to carry out the mandate she was given to implement the transformation of AHS, which the premier of Alberta mandated the minister to implement.
"The plaintiff lost the confidence of AHS and the minister."
In an emailed response to CBC News, Dan Scott, lawyer for Mentzelopoulos, said the allegations in the statement of defence are false. He said his client was terminated without cause.
Scott said Mentzelopoulos is looking forward to filing her reply to the statement of defence, and in a statement issued earlier Thursday, Mentzelopoulos said she is comfortable moving quickly to trial.
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