Alberta cabinet minister calls for health minister to be removed amid scandal

Alberta Minister of Infrastructure Peter Guthrie announces Bill 25 at the Alberta legislature building on Oct. 20, 2024. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton)

Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is facing a renewed call to step down over allegations of high-level corruption in health contracts -- but this time the call is coming from one of her own cabinet colleagues.

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Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie, in a memo obtained and reported on Friday by the CBC, says LaGrange and the top civil servant in health, Andre Tremblay, should be moved to other jobs while the scandal is investigated.

Guthrie’s email, reportedly sent to his cabinet colleagues Thursday, said the gravity of the allegations requires Tremblay to be moved, LaGrange shifted to another cabinet portfolio and for the RCMP to be notified if there are potential concerns of criminal behaviour.

The Canadian Press has not seen Guthrie’s email but has asked Premier Danielle Smith’s office about it. In an emailed statement Friday, Smith’s office does not challenge the veracity of the memo but backs LaGrange.

“I have full confidence in the health minister to continue her important work in refocusing and reforming our health system,” the premier’s statement says.

Smith’s government and Alberta’s auditor general are investigating the allegations, which centre around a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed this week by the former head of Alberta Health Services, Athana Mentzelopoulos.

Mentzelopoulos, in her statement of claim, alleges LaGrange fought and ultimately fired her after she balked at signing off on excessively lucrative contracts between the government and private surgery clinics.

She also alleges government interference and conflicts of interest in contracts awarded to medical supply company MHCare.

The company was awarded a $70-million deal in 2022 to secure children’s pain medication from Turkey, but the government only received 30 per cent of the order and Alberta Health Services stopped using the medication over safety concerns.

Multiple cabinet ministers, including Guthrie, have said they accepted luxury box suite tickets to Edmonton Oilers playoff games courtesy of MHCare and its CEO, Sam Mraiche.

Lawyers for MHCare have rejected the allegations made against the company and Mraiche.

Mentzelopoulos’s claims have not been tested in court.

Reached for comment Friday, LaGrange’s spokesperson Jessi Rampton said the minister had no comment and referred to a previous statement LaGrange issued this week in which she said many of the allegations are false while others needed to be looked into.

The nature of the internal government investigation is unclear.

On Friday, Smith announced that a top bureaucrat has been tasked with hiring an outside firm to investigate the matter “independently of government.”

Earlier this week, Rampton said the government was hiring a third party to investigate but said the investigation was to be overseen by the government.

A spokesperson for Smith, Sam Blackett, said Friday the firm will operate independently and will submit a report to the bureaucrat involved in the hiring.

Blackett also said the government’s investigation is separate from another examination pledged previously by Alberta Health Services.

Smith added that the government is working “to ensure there are no conflicts between these investigations and those who have been named in the accusations.”

Critics, including the Opposition NDP, have called for LaGrange to be fired.

They have also pointed out that it would be improper for the government to oversee an investigation given Mentzelopoulos has accused both Tremblay and LaGrange in her statement of claim of interfering with her work and getting her fired.

While serving as LaGrange’s top civil servant in the health ministry, Tremblay is also the head of Alberta Health Services, which is charged with delivering front-line care.

That job was the one Mentzelopoulos was fired from on Jan. 8, allegedly against the will of the AHS board of directors. Three weeks after she was fired, the board was fired and Tremblay was appointed the sole board member.

Three other cabinet ministers who faced questions from reporters earlier this week all said they supported LaGrange staying in the health role while the allegations are reviewed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2025.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press