The executive director of Friends of Medicare, Chris Gallaway says the Health Minister of Alberta, Adriana LaGrange must step aside immediately.
Today (Feb. 11), the Globe and Mail uncovered additional evidence surrounding the allegations of political interference into Alberta’s procurement process with for-profit surgical facilities.
According to the Globe and Mail article, LaGrange stripped Alberta’s health authority of its power to negotiate contracts for private surgical facilities.
Moreover, according to the government directive, after the agency’s then-chief executive allegedly raised concerns internally about the prices in the contracts.
Gallaway shared that these are extremely serious allegations, and every day they seem to get worse.
“Evidence of a government directive from the Ministry of Health interfering in contracting decisions shows this government is willing to grievously overstep their authority in order to further their privatization agenda in our health care,” Gallaway said.
Adding that, “yet the Premier and the Health Minister have been concerningly quiet. They need to show they are taking these allegations seriously. The Premier needs to answer publicly to Albertans and respond to questions from the media.”
After the initial allegations broke, Premier Danielle Smith responded in an online statement stating that beyond writing to the Auditor General, she had also asked an Alberta Health Services (AHS) internal review be completed as soon as possible, and that their findings be delivered directly to her, rather than released publicly as usual.
The Deputy Minister of Health is left in charge of AHS exclusively while the CEO and Board of AHS have been fired. “Under this context, how can Albertans have faith in any sort of internal AHS investigation when the Minister of Health remains in her role?” Gallaway stated.
Adding that the “Health Minister clearly needs to step aside. We do not believe any proper independent investigations can happen unless she does.”
The concerns revolve around the UCP government’s pursuit of an aggressive privatization agenda, including signing secretive contracts with for-profit health care providers to expand their role throughout health care, in surgeries, labs, addictions care, food services, laundry, ambulance services and more.
“Under this government, Alberta has increasingly spent significant public health care dollars to subsidize the profits of private entities throughout our health care system,” Gallaway said, adding that “at this point, Albertans cannot trust that it’s only surgical procurement that needs to be investigated.”
He suggests that the Auditor General’s investigation should review the procurement processes for all contracts given to for-profit health care providers, and any concerning evidence should be shared with the RCMP immediately.
