Public Interest Alberta is requesting the RCMP launch a formal investigation into allegations within the UCP Government and Alberta Health Services (AHS) to determine whether corruption and breach of trust, among other criminal conduct may have taken place regarding the procurement of health services contracts.
"Albertans are angry at the secrecy and silence of Danielle Smith and Adriana Lagrange and we need a full accounting for what amounts to the largest political scandal in Alberta's history," said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. "We have written the Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP to launch an immediate investigation into the alleged political interference, which could include corruption and breach of public trust."
In an interview with Central Alberta News Online, Lafortune explains what Public Interest Alberta is.
“Public interest Alberta has been around for just over 20 years now. It's a nonprofit organization that advocates for public education. public health care and public services. Basically, we work primarily with the provincial government but also work at the federal and municipal governments when needed to make the case. We need to preserve public services, and so we do everything from lobbying elected officials to having public campaigns calling for more investment in those services. Right now, we're really focused on healthcare, obviously.”
Lafortune says they are working to get this issue on healthcare looked into.
“Yesterday we wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP, wanting a formal RCMP investigation. We're not saying that there's been any criminal conduct. We're not in a position to say that, but we know that the allegations do point in that direction and that Albertans deserve to have someone get to the bottom of it, who is fully independent from the government.”
"We are talking about $614M in contracts here, allegedly involving political interference and the blatant picking of Danielle Smith and the UCP's friends and insiders," said Lafortune. "It is unacceptable and we fear there may be more contracts in other areas that require scrutiny."
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says that Health Minister Adriana LaGrange has her full support, and that she fully supports a review being done by Alberta's auditor general Doug Wylie.
On Tuesday, LaGrange’s office, in response to media questions, clarified that a third party will assist in the review being conducted by Alberta Health Services but that overall control remains with the government.
Public Interest Alberta says they will be in Red Deer again this Saturday to protest in front of the office of Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.