Alberta Government cancels procurement of Lethbridge private surgical facility

The procurement of a private surgicial facility to be located in Lethbridge was cancelled Wednesday.

The Alberta government has announced that the procurement for chartered surgical facilities in Lethbridge and Red Deer has been cancelled.

The information was shared during the Legislative Assembly’s question period Tuesday afternoon.

“Concerns were raised about the procurement practices and procedures and handling of conflict of interests in Alberta Health Services (AHS) procurement,” said Matt Jones, minister of hospital and surgical health services.

“I’m pleased to share the procurements for the central and south zone surgical facilities have been cancelled.”

Jones made the announcement after he was asked about conflict of interest involving AHS procurement process.

“Procurement and contracting is being transferred to the health shared services organization. We’ve hired a consultant, RSM, to align our procurement and contracting procedures with the best jurisdictions in the world,” said Jones during Tuesday’s question period.

“Mr. Speaker, that’s going to result in more transparent, accountable and public processes for all Albertans.”

According to the province, while the original request for proposals was issued in September 2022, no formal agreements have been signed.

“This decision to cancel these procurements was based on several factors, including the significant time that had elapsed since the proponent was selected, which made the original economic assumptions and costing outdated,” said Jones in a statement.

“There were also operational challenges and delays in finalizing contracts, as well as a transition to new procurement oversight under ACA.”

Criticism

The AHS procurement has faced criticism since an October 2025 report highlighted conflict of interests that negatively affected the procurement process.

“The fact this was mentioned in an answer to a question period question, it wasn’t a fulsome government release with details or information for the public,” said Chris Gallaway, with Friends of Medicare.

“It’s frustrating and it just shows their lack of commitment to transparency and accountability.”

The proposed private surgical facility, announced in 2022, would see an additional 1,250 more procedures be complete in the south zone.

“We think this is an opportunity for the government not to procure those facilities,” said Gallaway.

Instead, Gallaway would like to see the province invest that money into the public healthcare system, to support services already available.

‘Opening a new surgical centre doesn’t create more staff, (and) we’re in a staffing crisis,” he said.

“We don’t have the surgeons and nurses we need to keep our public operating rooms open in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge and throughout the province. Opening a new private facility in the same community will only make that worse.”

The Alberta NDP also want to see the province boost the public healthcare sector.

“Hoping the resources can be plugged into the public surgical system so that they have the adequate resources to actually do the surgeries at Chinook Regional Hospital,” said Rob Miyashiro, Lethbridge-West NDP MLA.

Acute Care Alberta plans to launch a new competitive procurement process in early 2026 to secure additional surgical capacity.

Miyashiro wants that process to be transparent to avoid a repeat.

“It’s public dollars, it’s public services and we would like to see that these contracts aren’t just handed out to the friends of the UCP,” said Miyashiro.

CTV News reached out to Lethbridge-East UCP MLA Nathan Neudorf for comment but has not yet received a response.