The Minister of Health, Adriana Lagrange, alleges that the former CEO of Alberta Health Services was not willing and unable to implement the government’s plan to break the health authority, “fell in love” of her internal research on private surgical contracts and made “incendiary and inaccurate accusations about the political intrigue and impropriety” before she was fired in January.
The claims are contained in the Minister’s Defense Declaration presented on Thursday at the Bank of the King Court of Edmonton.
Smith has said that he had no participation in hiring decisions.
The accusations of Mentzelopoulos, the state of defense statements, were made to divert the attention of concerns about their own performance and professionalism.
The document also says that Mentzelopoulos made its claims in an attempt to obtain a greater payment for being fired.
Mentzelopoulos said he was fired in January, days before he met with the Alberta General Auditor about surgical contracts that, according to her, had links with government officials.
She claims that she was fired, in part, because she had launched a forensic investigation and audit and was taking a second glance at prices in contracts involving Alberta’s surgical group before extending the agreement.
Mentzelopoulos also expanded AHS’s investigations to include AHS’s acquisition with the MHCare medical supply company. The company won a $ 70 million contract in 2022 to import pain of the children of Türkiye’s children. The majority of the product has not been used.
Lagrange, in the Defense Declaration, said that Mentzelopoulos’s suggestion was fired to avoid talking with the general auditor is false. The document establishes that the province supports the investigation of the general auditor that is now underway.
“The plaintiff was not fired by AHS because she began an investigation. She was not fired as part of a conspiracy to stop an investigation,” says the document.
“He was fired because he could not play his role as president and CEO effectively and failed to carry out the mandate they gave him to implement the transformation of AHS, that Alberta’s prime minister ordered the minister to implement.
“The plaintiff lost the confidence of AHS and the minister.”
In an email -sent response to CBC News, Dan Scott, lawyer of Mentzelopoulos, said the accusations in the defense declaration are false. He said his client was fired without cause.
Scott said Mentzelopoulos hopes to present his response to the Defense Declaration, and in a statement issued early, Mentzelopoulos said he feels comfortable quickly moving to the trial.
“I worry that there is a strategy to try to put my knees financially, so I hope we can omit oral questions and proceed directly to trial,” he said.
The accusations in the declaration of claim of Mentzelopoulos and the Defense Declaration of Lagrange have not been proven in the Court.
Accusations of deliberate delays
The 23 -page defense statement alleges that, such as CEO, Mentzelopoulos was trying to delay the government movement to divide AHS into four separate divisions that cover acute attention, continuous attention, primary care and mental health and addictions to “protect their own authority and personal state.”
The document describes what it says is the timeline of orthopedic surgery services in Edmonton, starting with a request for proposal from July 2021. He says that Alberta’s surgical group (ASG) was not the successful defender.
However, the winning proponent did not have a ready building, but Asg yes, so AHS signed a two -year contract with them.
The costs by procedure, which later worried about Mentzelopoulos, were due too high, were due to the shortest length of the contract, says the document.
By August 2024, the winning proponent was not ready yet, so the province wanted to extend the contract with ASG. The document establishes that, instead of participating in conversations to extend the contract last on October 31, Mentzelopoulos launched an investigation into the terms of the agreement, including the prices that they believed were out of line with the contracts signed with other suppliers.
The preliminary results of this review by external researchers did not discover a reason not to extend the contract of ASG last October 31, according to the document, but Mentzelopoulos did not share those findings with the government.
The Defense Declaration alleges that Mentzelopoulos “refused to move forward with any substantive negotiation with ASG, endangering the thousands of reserved surgeries.” The province says that is why he was forced to intervene.
Mentzelopoulos finally signed in the extension at 3 pm the day the original contract expired, according to the document.
Mentzelopoulos alleged in his claim statement that Lagrange told him in December to conclude his investigation. In response, Lagrange said that the former CEO was told to transfer the investigation to the province. That investigation continued after Mentzelopoulos, according to the document. The appointment of retreat Manitoba Judge Raymond E. Wyant announced last weekIt is part of that effort.
Lagrange rejects the affirmation of Mentzelopoulos that the date of its termination was linked to its meeting with the general auditor the next day. The Defense Declaration says that the decision to fire it came on December 23, but was delayed due to Christmas holidays.
The document also denies the former chief of Cabinet of Danielle Smith, Marshall Smith, was pressing Mentzelopoulos to extend the ASG contract and sign a surgical contract for red deer.
The Mentzelopoulos document disputes affirm that Marshall Smith had close links with a senior official in the AHS acquisition department that also had close links with the main contractors dealt with the health agency.
The province is asking that the demand for Mentzelopoulos is “dismissed with costs based on the lawyer and the client in the light of the incendiary accusations made.”
The Minister of Justice, Mickey Amery, said in a statement that, since the matter is before the courts, the province would not provide more comments and added “we will resolutely defend the accusations not proven raised in this matter.”
