Retired judge says he can’t explain why price of Alberta’s pain meds contract rose by $7M

A retired judge tasked with investigating allegations about Alberta health contracting says Alberta Health Services (AHS) renegotiated a contract to procure children’s medication for $7 million more and forensic accountants can’t justify why.

In an addendum report released Friday, five months after publishing his initial findings, retired Manitoba justice Raymond Wyant said AHS inked an updated five-year, $56-million contract with medical supplier MHCare in July 2023. The supplementary report says AHS signed the deal after the province was unable to get Health Canada approval to import all of the five million bottles of children’s pain medication it had initially agreed to buy from Turkish supplier Atabay Pharmaceuticals in 2022.

The renegotiated 2023 contract was supposed to pay for alternative Atabay products that Health Canada has already approved for import. 

Wyant called upon forensic accountants at a firm called RSM to investigate the contracts. Children’s painkillers were in short supply in Canada when Premier Danielle Smith announced in December 2022 the province was planning to buy the Turkish medication in bulk.

“Based on the documentation reviewed, RSM was unable to find support for the contract value of $56 million between AHS and MHCare,” Wyant wrote.

The RSM report also said AHS has paid $42 million of public money to MHCare for products that have not been delivered, as of Oct. 31, 2025.

Wyant’s initial investigation found that in 2022, then-Alberta health minister Jason Copping ordered AHS to buy children’s medication and to place the order before receiving Health Canada approval. Wyant said he found the province ordered about 10 times more medication than officials thought it needed.

Wyant’s first report said when the province couldn’t get approval to import more than 1.5 million bottles of the children’s medication, AHS employee Jitendra Prasad recommended the agency instead buy intravenous acetaminophen solution to get products for the money AHS committed. 

Wyant also found Prasad was in a conflict of interest, having both worked for AHS and having a relationship and an email address with MHCare while working to source the medication.

The addendum RSM report says Alberta initially received about $20-million worth of children’s medication, or 1,473,619 bottles of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen. The medication had expiry dates between January and April 2026.

Wyant writes in a note attached to the report that AHS disposed of nearly 807,000 bottles, or 55 per cent of the medication, at the Swan Hills hazardous waste plant, and 44 per cent of the bottles were donated to Health Partners International Canada for use overseas.

Wyant’s note says about one per cent of the bottles AHS received were distributed to hospitals and pharmacies.

Some of the information in Friday’s addendum report has been previously reported.

CBC News asked the Alberta government for comment on Wyant’s new findings. In an email sent Friday evening, Yonathan Sumamo, assistant deputy minister of communications and public engagement, said the addendum report reaffirms the conclusions reached in Wyant's earlier report, "and confirms serious procurement and contract‑management failures within AHS, while also finding no evidence of wrongdoing by elected officials, political staff or the Alberta Public Service."