LaGrange orders rule change to lock in Andre Tremblay as AHS interim CEO
CBC
The administrator and interim CEO of Alberta Heath Services changed AHS's official rules to declare that only the deputy health minister could be named CEO of the health agency — a change made while he was serving as deputy health minister.
That all had to change days later, after Premier Danielle Smith temporarily removed Andre Tremblay from his ministry job and appointed a new acting deputy health minister during ongoing investigations into AHS contracting.
When CBC News asked last week if Tremblay's term as CEO was contrary to the corporate bylaw he'd just enacted, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange's office said she's ordered Tremblay to revise the AHS bylaws once again — to declare that the administrator could serve as CEO during this period of major reform in the provincial health system.
The revised bylaw will allow Tremblay to remain the sole person in charge of AHS, serving as both CEO and as a one-man board of directors, something that is "problematic," according to an expert in public administration.
Tremblay, who had served as deputy minister of health since mid-2023, became interim CEO of AHS as well on Jan. 8, the day that Athana Mentzelopoulos was removed from the agency's top executive job.
She has since filed a $1.7 million wrongful dismissal suit, claiming she was terminated after she'd authorized an investigation and forensic audit into AHS contracts, and that she was "subject to interference and pressure" from government officials to sign off on agency contracts with private surgical companies, despite concerns over their costs.
No allegations have been proven in court, and statements of defence from AHS and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange have not yet been filed. LaGrange told reporters Wednesday she will file a statement of defence in court in the coming weeks.
After three weeks serving as interim CEO alongside his regular job, Tremblay added to his titles AHS official administrator — a one-man board of directors — after LaGrange ousted the existing seven-person board.
On Feb. 12, a few weeks into his tenure with all three jobs, Tremblay passed a formal administrator's resolution, which allowed him to unilaterally change AHS general bylaws.
The resolution stated a ministerial order from LaGrange required the bylaw amendment.
That change added a single new provision, which stated: "the board [of AHS] shall not appoint any other individuals, other than the deputy minister of health, to serve as the interim president and chief executive officer of AHS during a winding-up period."
Although the change was made on Feb. 12, it was backdated to take effect on Jan. 8, the day Mentzelopoulos was terminated.
Winding-up period refers to the current phase of the Smith government's health care restructuring. AHS's central health authority role is being divided up among four different service-specific agencies — and at the end of this wind-up, AHS will be transformed into a hospital service provider that is contracted by a new provincial agency, Acute Care Alberta.
Alberta Health did not provide a clear timeline spelling out how long it will be before AHS is technically "dissolved" into this new, lesser role.
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