Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is accusing Premier Danielle Smith of consistently minimizing the nature of her relationship with Sam Mraiche.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Alberta’s Official Opposition on Sunday said a Globe and Mail story documenting ties between Premier Danielle Smith’s government and an Edmonton businessman underscore the need for a public inquiry into the province’s health care procurement practices.
New Democratic Party Leader Naheed Nenshi said The Globe’s investigation detailing links between executive Sam Mraiche and Ms. Smith’s government reveal “deep, deep, deep” ties worthy of further examination.
Mr. Mraiche owns companies at the centre of the procurement controversy roiling the province’s politics.
Mr. Nenshi has been calling for a public inquiry ever since The Globe first reported allegations early this year that officials in Ms. Smith’s government put pressure on Alberta Health Services’s former chief executive to sign deals benefiting certain private companies.
Alberta’s Auditor-General and the RCMP are conducting their own investigations into the controversy, which has led to one cabinet minister resigning after he said the government’s response to the allegations was insufficient.
Who is Sam Mraiche? Inside Alberta’s health care controversy
Raymond Wyant, a retired Manitoba judge the Premier appointed to examine health care procurement, said in October that Alberta Health Services and the health ministry at times broke their own rules but that he did not find any evidence political officials acted inappropriately.
Mr. Mraiche has always maintained that he acted appropriately.
The Globe’s investigation, published Saturday, revealed that Mr. Mraiche’s connections to the governing United Conservative Party are more extensive than previously reported.
The investigation, for example, found that Mr. Mraiche joined Ms. Smith’s inner circle in a hotel suite to watch the provincial election results in May, 2023.
“When you are waiting for the results to come in, especially in a close race like it was in 2023, you are surrounded only by [your] absolute closest advisers,” Mr. Nenshi said in an interview Sunday. Calgarians elected Mr. Nenshi as their mayor three times before he became leader of the NDP last year.
“The Premier has consistently minimized the nature of her relationship with Sam Mraiche,” Mr. Nenshi added.
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The NDP Leader noted that the 2023 election followed the government’s decision to direct Alberta Health Services to procure children’s pain medication during a shortage in late 2022.
Mr. Mraiche owns MHCare Medical Corp., the company that the health agency tapped to import $70-million worth of children’s medication from Turkey in an effort to ease the shortfall. Only about a third of the medication arrived in the province, little of which was used.
Mr. Nenshi reiterated his demand that the Premier call a public inquiry into Alberta’s health care contracts and procurement processes.
“If she is as clean as she claims, the thing that would absolutely clear her would be a public inquiry,” he said.
Ms. Smith, speaking to reporters at the United Conservative Party’s annual meeting in Edmonton on Saturday, maintained that she treated Mr. Mraiche just as she would any other executive.
“I have always said that I have seen him socially a handful of times, as I have with many, many individuals who want to do business with our government.”
Alberta health agency broke own rules in Turkey medication, private clinic contracts, report finds
Sam Blackett, a spokesman for Ms. Smith, did not respond to a message seeking comment Sunday.
Mr. Mraiche did not respond to questions for this story on Sunday.
In a letter MHCare sent to the government in April, it said: “The unspectacular truth is that Mr. Mraiche’s interactions with government, those in elected office and senior staff fit entirely within the established parameters of typical government relations for the CEO of a commercial entity.”
Athana Mentzelopoulos, in a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit, alleged that the government fired her as Alberta Health Services’s chief executive in January because she was investigating MHCare’s business with the organization, surgical contracts she considered overpriced, and conflicts of interest at the agency.
The government alleged that it dismissed the executive for incompetence. None of the allegations have been tested in court.
Alberta Health Services has paid MHCare roughly $614-million for medical supplies since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to documents prepared by the agency. Mr. Mraiche also owns part of two companies vying to build new private surgical facilities in Alberta. The health agency, in a memo in January, said those companies proposed 15-year contracts worth roughly $430-million.
Alberta private clinics adviser worked for firm vying for contract, confidential report says
The Globe’s story on Saturday revealed that Ms. Smith’s schedule included a dinner at Mr. Mraiche’s home and a Zoom call with him and a former Alberta Health Services procurement official before she became Premier.
Further, newly obtained photos show Ms. Smith, five cabinet ministers, and senior political staff with Mr. Mraiche in a box suite during the Edmonton Oilers playoff run in 2024.
Paul Thomas, a political-science emeritus professor at the University of Manitoba who has specialized in procurement issues and government ethics, said that the interactions documented by The Globe between government officials and Mr. Mraiche – such as ministers attending hockey games with the executive – raise concerns.
Ms. Smith’s government amended the province’s ethics rules in 2023 to make it easier for MLAs and political staff to accept gifts like concert and hockey tickets. The changes allow members of the legislature to accept a gift provided it is an “incident of protocol or of the social obligations” tied to the job, according to the revised legislation. There is no limit on the value of acceptable gifts, but MLAs must report those more than $1,000 to the Ethics Commissioner.
“There has to be that private voice in the back of your head which says: ‘I may be allowed to do this, but it’s wrong in principle and it wouldn’t look right to the public, and I probably shouldn’t do it,’” Prof. Thomas said.
Ministers and political staff, he said, should have been aware of how their conduct would be perceived by the public, even if it did not explicitly break any rules.
“It’s not always clear-cut,” he said. “So, is it wrong for me to accept hockey tickets if I’m a minister? I should probably offer to pay my own way.”