Former AHS CEO fires back at province

EDMONTON – Former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos (pictured) disputes claims made by the province and its health authority that she was fired over job performance. Mentzelopoulos struck back in a court-document reply to statements of defence recently made by both.

The former AHS head is suing both, alleging she was let go for sounding the alarm over various inflated provincial contracts and procurement processes.

In the aftermath of the lawsuit being filed, both have said Mentzelopoulos was chasing scandals without merit and lost sight of or refused to forward the provincial health system overhaul she was meant to be overseeing.

Mentzelopoulos’s latest court filing was made public last week.

The document says “both (Health Minister Adriana) LaGrange and AHS have now filed statements of defence that are filled with completely unfounded, entirely fictitious, malicious and bad faith allegations about Mentzelopoulos and her performance while CEO and president of AHS.”

It says allegations made by the province and AHS are an “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.”

And it says the allegations “have been compounded by false public statements about Mentzelopoulos made by premier Danielle Smith and are consistent with recent comments made by premier Smith’s former chief of staff, Marshall Smith.”

LaGrange and the premier have publicly denied wrongdoing and ignoring concerns of such. Marshall Smith left the government last fall. He has said the allegations are “outrageous and false” and that he’s eager to meet with investigators.

None of the allegations have been proven in court, nor have any of the counter-allegations.

Mentzelopoulos says the AHS board did not lose confidence in her at any time, nor did it express concerns about her job performance.

Likewise, Mentzelopoulos says LaGrange expressed no dissatisfaction with her effort to oversee the provincial health system overhaul.

She says the health minister was, if nothing else, complimentary and continued to be so, publicly at least, even after she was fired.

She also disputes allegations of verbal altercations with senior government officials.