Alberta premier distances herself from $109M DynaLife lab testing debacle

Although DynaLife and Alberta Health Services (AHS) have announced plans to add appointment capacity to reduce wait times, the union representing lab workers says if a deal can't be reached, there could be job action.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is distancing herself from a multimillion-dollar lab testing debacle involving the former private provider DynaLife.

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Smith, speaking in the legislature Thursday, said that the problems predated her time in office and that when she came in, she moved quickly to fix them.

“We knew that there was a problem right after the election,” Smith said in question period.

“We’re very pleased that we were able to identify the issues, we were able to ensure that we acted quickly, and we were also able to ensure that patients got the services they needed.”

Her comments come a day after Alberta’s auditor general reported that some $109 million in public funds went to waste through the government’s effort to privatize provincewide lab services in 2022.

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi urged Smith to apologize and take responsibility for the contract, saying beyond wasted money, the failed implementation also put Albertans in harm’s way.

Smith responded saying that she took responsibility after the election when she and her newly appointed health minister looked at the situation and realized it was a mistake, returning all testing to the public system.

She added that her government has not since heard complaints about how the system is running.

“The members opposite should be happy — government funded, government run — this is exactly what they’ve been asking for in health care,” she said.

The DynaLife expansion was a project largely overseen by former United Conservative premier Jason Kenney’s government. Smith was sworn in four months after the contract was signed, though it took effect and DynaLife’s provincewide operations began months after she took office.

Auditor general Doug Wylie’s report says that it wasn’t long after DynaLife took over before it became clear it couldn’t deliver on services as wait-lists ballooned and reports of testing errors became concerning.

DynaLife requested more funds from the province, but that request was denied and the government, under Smith’s leadership following the 2023 spring election, terminated the contract and bought out the company.

Wylie’s report says before the deal was signed politicians had pushed the deal ahead despite repeated warnings along the way from bureaucrats that the $102 million in initially expected savings from privatization wouldn’t materialize. It also said the government’s steadfast direction led to a breakdown in following other policies that could have identified issues sooner.

Smith and Nenshi also went back and forth on Wylie reporting that Alberta Health Services, or AHS — with the support of the government’s health department — withheld or partially redacted thousands of documents that he requested as part of his multi-year investigation into the contract. Wylie said more than 1,000 documents were completely redacted.

“Can the premier explain today why her government did not co-operate with the auditor general in the preparation of this report, and what measures she is personally taking to ensure more transparency in the future?” Nenshi said.

Smith responded by saying that any insinuation her government didn’t co-operate was wrong. She also said she thought the “most serious allegations” regarding documentation was Wylie writing that notebooks he requested of a former Alberta Health Services executive were destroyed.

“I think AHS does have a lot to answer for with its internal practices,” Smith said.

Nenshi responded by saying Smith was deflecting and going “back to her usual thing about blaming the reptilian shapeshifters who apparently run AHS."

A spokesperson for AHS said it has new leadership at all levels of the organization, and that it’s prepared to focus on its relatively new and reduced mandate of only providing hospital services, rather than running health care across the province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press