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The CEO of Alberta Health Services, who took over after a controversial firing in January, is now off the job.
Former provincial health bureaucrat André Tremblay is on leave, the provincial hospital agency confirmed Wednesday.
Hospitals Minister Matt Jones has appointed Erin O’Neill, a current AHS executive, to serve as interim chief executive, a spokesperson wrote in an email.
Eleven months ago, Tremblay was named top executive and sole director of AHS following the ouster of the entire board of directors and then-CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos.
He then sued AHS and the provincial government for wrongful dismissal, claiming she was fired for launch an investigation into contracts with private surgical companies that she claims had ties to government officials.
His claims sparked a political firestorm over AHS procurement and conflict of interest allegations, prompting investigations by the auditor general, the RCMP and a retired judge.
Tremblay, who previously served as Alberta’s deputy health minister, has also figured in Mentzelopoulos’ allegations. According to her lawsuit, Tremblay surprised her by appearing on a Zoom call on Jan. 8 and saying she was fired immediately.
None of Mentzelopoulos’ allegations have been proven in court.
AHS did not disclose the nature or reasons for Tremblay’s leave, saying in an email that it was a human resources matter.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government allowed Tremblay to simultaneously serve as Alberta Health deputy, AHS CEO and AHS administrator (his one-man board) for several weeks, until Smith he shuffled it of ministerial work in mid-February.
That move came as Smith faced internal political pressure to remove Tremblay from one or more of his jobs amid Mentzelopoulos’ allegations. that included a note from then minister Peter Guthrie, who later resigned from cabinet over his protests over the AHS controversies, and was later removed from the UCP group.
O’Neill, the new interim CEO of AHS, had served earlier this year as Alberta’s deputy deputy minister of health alongside Tremblay.
This latest move at the top of AHS comes as the province continues to transfer its responsibilities to several other new Crown agencies, including Acute Care Alberta and Primary Care Alberta. The Smith government has characterized this as a “reorientation” of the health system and limiting AHS’s role to an overseer of public hospitals, rather than an all-encompassing provincial health authority.
