Health agency head rebuts Alberta government’s defence in wrongful dismissal lawsuit

EDMONTON — The former head of Alberta Health Services says arguments by the province that she was fired for incompetence are not only false but also “vindictive and malicious.”

Athana Mentzelopoulos, in a court document filed Thursday, alleges that far from being criticized for her work, she was praised by Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.

Mentzelopoulos is suing LaGrange and AHS, alleging she was illegally fired in January to stop her from investigating sweetheart deals and high-level political interference in multimillion-dollar health procurement contracts.

The document alleges statements of defence from LaGrange and AHS, filed last week, are a “bad faith attempt to publicly smear Mentzelopoulos, damage her reputation and future employment prospects, and deflect from the substance of the allegations in the statement of claim.”

Mentzelopoulos was fired one year into a four-year contract and is seeking $1.7 million in lost wages and damages.

LaGrange and AHS allege the agency had no choice but to fire Mentzelopoulos, because she was stonewalling critical health reforms while pursuing a fantasy investigation that turned up nothing.

The reply from Mentzelopoulos alleges her investigation turned up several very serious concerns about a potential conflict of interest inside AHS procurement.

It also says the AHS board never expressed any concern to her about her performance, including her work to shepherd the agency through a massive effort to restructure the health-care system.

AHS has been in charge of all health delivery in the province but, in the last year, has been winding down to become one piece of a new multi-agency model.

LaGrange has alleged Mentzelopoulos got in the way of that restructuring, but Mentzelopoulos argues LaGrange was complimentary of her effort to get it to the finish line.

The document alleges LaGrange met Mentzelopoulos as recently as Dec. 2 to discuss the restructuring and told the former CEO: “I think you’ve done some phenomenal things in Alberta Health Services, like honestly I really do.”

Further, the document alleges the restructuring was directed by the United Conservative Party government, and was “underfunded and poorly articulated.”

For its part, AHS alleges Mentzelopoulos failed or was unwilling to balance the agency’s budget.

The document from Mentzelopoulos alleges she was forced to manage “significant” health-care system underfunding. It claims the agency was under pressure to find some $400 million in cost reductions and had already found ways to save about $136 million as of October.

Amid those budget pressures, the document alleges Mentzelopoulos was compelled to review contracts with private surgical companies that appeared to have inflated costs.

It was also last fall that Mentzelopoulos has claimed she was under political pressure to sign off on a surgical facility contract extension, despite her concerns about inflated costs compared to other private providers and AHS.

LaGrange has argued that the former CEO was wrong in her price comparisons and, because AHS didn’t have the capacity to perform extra surgeries, delay on the deal was compromising care for other patients.

A former judge hired by the province, the auditor general and the RCMP are all pursuing separate investigations into the claims by Mentzelopoulos.

Premier Danielle Smith and LaGrange have both said the allegations are serious and ought to be thoroughly investigated.

Those public statements, alleges the document from Mentzelopoulos, show her curiosity was warranted.

“Mentzelopoulos is left to assume that the ‘infatuation’ into the ‘dramatic tale and false narrative’ alleged in the LaGrange statement of defence is more contagious than initially thought,” the document says.

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

Lisa Johnson and Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press