Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie continues to express no confidence in the third-party investigation led by retired Manitoba judge Raymond Wyant, whom Premier Danielle Smith’s administration appointed to look into allegations of corruption in health care contracts.
Guthrie says the information being shared with Wyant is controlled by the Smith administration and believes the ongoing investigations by the RCMP and Alberta’s Auditor General will be more revealing.
Wyant was initially expected to deliver an interim report by May 30 and a final report by June 30. However, the deadline for the final report has been extended to Oct. 15.
The Independent MLA doubts even that deadline will be met.
“I’ve been made aware that no one has been interviewed, so he still has a long way to go in the process—going through thousands of pieces of information. Then he has to get out and interview people who were at the centre of this. That hasn’t happened yet, so I have my doubts he can complete it by Oct. 15.”
While it may take longer to investigate the deep-rooted allegations, Guthrie says Premier Smith can't count on it falling into oblivion.
“This isn't going away. I have a lot of faith that with all the reams and mounds—tens of thousands of pages of information—and the witnesses both the Auditor General and the RCMP have seen, including hundreds of pages of documents I was compelled to submit, they’ll get to the bottom of it.”
Recently, Auditor General Doug Wylie was granted nearly $1 million in extra funding to continue digging into allegations. He said the sheer volume of documents and interviews involved in his probe means his office needs to contract specialists, including for legal analysis and advice.
Guthrie says the civil case filed by former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos has been revealing.
“She has done three filings so far, which have all been blockbusters in terms of the amount and extent of evidence submitted. The outcome could possibly come as early as this fall, so there are a lot of irons in the fire the premier is dealing with.”
Guthrie is pleased with the record crowd attracted to his Stampede barbecue, which featured quality Spolumbo sausages, giveaways and draws. Four years ago, his first pancake breakfast drew 300 people, and about one hundred more the following year. When he switched to a barbecue last year, it attracted 800. This year's surpassed 1,000—despite the absence of Premier Smith and some cabinet ministers. Lineups wrapped around two buildings.
Line dancers from Cathy Chalmers Line Dancing, including Guthrie’s wife Tracey, performed twice.
He said it wasn’t appropriate to collect signatures at the barbecue for the creation of a new Progressive Conservative (PC) party, but acknowledged that his recent political actions were a hot topic at the event.
“Since this all started, I think a lot of people appreciate that I’ve stood up for something I believe in—and something that’s the right thing to do. And there’s disappointment about the lack of transparency and accountability people are seeing.”
Guthrie says both the NDP and UCP are focused on the extremes, leaving a large segment of Albertans in the middle feeling politically homeless.
On Canada Day, Guthrie announced he had joined forces with Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair, also ousted from the UCP caucus, to relaunch the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.
“The feedback we’re getting since the announcement last week has been unbelievable. We’ve had hundreds of emails to the office and our PC Alberta website. People are saying, ‘You’re speaking to me. I feel like I don’t have a political home.’”
He said the petition to create the new PC party started with four signatures and has since drawn strong interest, though he didn’t reveal how many have signed.
“I went out with one other person the last few nights in Calgary to knock on some doors and see what the response would be like. And it has been fantastic. Of those opening their doors, probably 40 to 50 per cent have said yes, they’ll sign. It’s been excellent.”
While the party registration papers must be filed by Nov. 20, 2025, Guthrie says they aim to wrap that up by early September. For the petition to be successful, a minimum of about 8,900 signatures are required. They're shooting for 12,000.
“It should take Elections Alberta 30 to 60 days to process, and we would become a full-fledged party—hopefully by the end of October—just in time to sit in the legislature.”
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He says the revival of the PC party is more than two independent MLAs joining forces after being ousted from the UCP caucus.
“We’re restarting the roots of a party with a deep history going back to Peter Lougheed. That’s our focus—returning to those roots of integrity and honesty in government. We also acknowledge it went off track, so we’re looking to the future.”
Guthrie describes himself as a fiscal conservative with moderate social views—values he says align with the party’s original foundation in 1905.
After resigning as Infrastructure minister and later ousted from caucus, Guthrie says he was met with silence by his former colleagues but has since had some indirect contact.
“I’ve still got friends there, right?”
But he won’t pressure any of them to join.
“The door is open for conversations, but we’re not going out to solicit caucus members. People need to make the right decision for themselves. We’re supposed to be about integrity and building trust. That’s the foundation. It needs to be their decision—not us trying to convince them.”
He believes many in caucus should be taking a stronger stance.
“I do have mutual respect with many of my colleagues. I wish more would step up. There’s more and more evidence coming forward about this health deal and scandal. It’s not ending—and it has nothing to do with me. It’s about procurement, sole-source contracts, and issues we, as a conservative government, should never support. This isn’t what we stand for.”
