Conduct in question.

Athana Mentzelopoulos, the former chief executive of Alberta Health Services, was fired in January 2025. In a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit filed the following month, she alleged her dismissal was intended to halt an internal investigation she had launched into procurement practices, conflicts of interest, and political interference in multi-million-dollar health contracts. According to the lawsuit, AHS estimated that companies tied to one Edmonton businessman, Sam Mraiche, had received approximately $614 million in goods-and-services contracts from the agency.

Allegations on the record

• Mentzelopoulos alleged she was pressured by Marshall Smith, then chief of staff to Premier Smith, to approve contracts with a private surgical group at "significantly increased costs."
• The lawsuit alleges that prices proposed by certain private surgical facilities were roughly double the equivalent cost at public or other private providers.
• Mentzelopoulos alleged AHS's own outside legal counsel had recommended the agency seek answers about how a former AHS procurement official, Blayne Iskiw, came to hold a 12 per cent stake in two of those private surgical facilities — and whether anything of value had passed to him or AHS procurement chief Jitendra Prasad from Mraiche.
• According to the lawsuit, Prasad held an MHCare email account during the same period he was working on the children's medication procurement.
• The AHS board, on being briefed, advised Mentzelopoulos to alert the RCMP.

The denials on the record

The Government of Alberta and AHS have filed a counter-claim stating Mentzelopoulos was dismissed for performance reasons, not for her investigation. Marshall Smith has separately filed a defamation suit against the Globe and Mail and against Mentzelopoulos in connection with the reporting and the lawsuit. Sam Mraiche's lawyer has stated, in writing, that Mr. Mraiche and MHCare "have consistently maintained that they have not engaged in any improper conduct" and "remain confident that any fair and objective investigation will reach that conclusion."

None of these allegations or denials has been tested in court.

In March 2026, RCMP officers spent several days at the northwest Edmonton offices of MHCare Medical and Carver PA Corporation, both of which are controlled by Sam Mraiche or related companies. The Mounties confirmed in writing to the Globe and Mail and to CBC News that they had "executed multiple search warrants" as part of an investigation that began with a complaint received in February 2025. At least a dozen RCMP officers were observed at the building.

The investigation concerns "allegations of inappropriate procurement procedures in the province's health-care system." No charges have been laid.

The Globe and Mail's reporting beginning in July 2024 documented a network of personal and financial connections between Sam Mraiche and senior figures in the Smith government. None of what is summarised below is alleged. It is on the public record, and where the parties have responded, those responses are noted.

What the public record shows

• Marshall Smith, then chief of staff to Premier Smith, moved into a $1.6 million home in August 2023 that had been purchased by Fatima Mraiche, Sam Mraiche's sister.
• Mraiche provided multiple cabinet ministers and senior government staff with luxury-box tickets to Edmonton Oilers playoff games during the 2024 run. Alberta's finance minister and infrastructure minister have separately confirmed accepting tickets.
• Justice Minister Mickey Amery has been described in Globe and Mail reporting as a friend and relative of Sam Mraiche.
• Marshall Smith subsequently hired multiple Mraiche relatives, including Sam Mraiche's son Khalil, into government-related roles.
• Alberta Infrastructure purchased a parcel of commercial land in 2024 from a company headed by Mraiche.

The responses on the record

MHCare wrote to the Alberta government in April 2025 stating 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." Marshall Smith has denied any improper involvement in contract decisions.

The Smith government appointed retired Manitoba judge Raymond Wyant to conduct a third-party review. His report, released in October 2025, concluded that AHS had failed to follow its own procurement procedures when signing the deal with MHCare to import children's medication from Turkey. He further concluded that both the Health Ministry and AHS had failed to follow their own rules in signing off on a private surgical centre in Edmonton.

Wyant's report did not address Marshall Smith's $1.6-million house rental, the playoff hockey tickets, or the hiring of Mraiche's relatives. Marshall Smith was the only political staff member Wyant interviewed, and the scope of the review was set by its terms of reference.

The headline finding: taxpayers absorbed approximately $109 million in losses, and approximately $125 million in non-value-added costs across all government-initiated lab procurements between 2013 and 2023. The findings on government conduct during the audit itself are arguably more significant than the dollar figure.

What the Auditor General documented

• The Health Minister was briefed by AHS that projected savings had collapsed from $102 million per year to $18–36 million per year. The Minister directed AHS to carry on regardless.
• AHS itself determined that "even under the most optimistic assumptions, the costs under the proposed contract would be equivalent to current expenditures." There was no projected saving. AHS was directed to proceed regardless.
• DynaLIFE was the only company to make it through the bidding process. AHS raised concerns. There was no change in direction.
• The Auditor General was unable to access approximately 1,200 documents, withheld in their entirety on claims of legal or cabinet privilege — in some instances, in his words, "without clear rationale."
• AHS conducted a line-by-line legal review of the documents the Auditor General sought.
• Records the Auditor General had requested, including handwritten notebooks belonging to a former AHS chief executive officer, were destroyed.
• The Auditor General stated, in writing, that he could not determine the impact of the redacted and destroyed material on his findings.

That should be chilling to Albertans — not concerning. — Rebecca Graff-McRae, research manager, Parkland Institute, on the Auditor General's findings

According to Guthrie's contemporaneous handwritten notes from the Health Cabinet Committee meeting of January 30, 2025 — tabled in the Legislature in April — LaGrange asked the committee to dismiss the AHS board on the basis that the board was "holding up the implementation" of Acute Care Alberta. Guthrie has stated, on the public record:

• There was no mention at that meeting of the AHS investigation already underway into questionable contracts with private surgical facilities;
• There was no reference to former AHS CEO Mentzelopoulos's January 20 letter, which contained allegations of political interference in procurement;
• There was no indication that the Auditor General had been notified;
• An AHS board member's account of the same events later contradicted LaGrange's stated reason. Guthrie wrote that this gave him "enough reason to cast significant doubt on (LaGrange's) judgment here."

I tried to work within the system to shine a light on the issues, but the government wasn't interested in hearing it... Overall, the sentiment in the room was that I was fabricating a problem where none existed and behaving like a conspiracy theorist. — Peter Guthrie, in a letter to the Auditor General, tabled in the Legislature April 30, 2025

Premier Smith's response in Question Period the following day: "No one was misled." Health Minister LaGrange called Guthrie "misguided, misinformed and misinterpreted." Smith's press secretary said any accusation that staff or the minister withheld information was "absolutely false." What none of them claimed is that Guthrie's notes were inauthentic. The notes are the contemporaneous record of a sitting cabinet minister.

In a public statement issued the morning of April 30, 2026, Elections Alberta confirmed it was taking "every possible action" to determine whether an inappropriate distribution of the List of Electors had occurred and, if so, "to protect and recover the information." The agency described the situation as "unfolding" and confirmed that no breach of Elections Alberta's own systems had occurred. The list left through a legitimate front door — given to a registered political party that is entitled to receive it, and then, the agency alleges, distributed to a third party in violation of the Election Act.

The list contains every Albertan voter's first name, middle name, surname, residential address, postal code, telephone number, unique voter identifier, electoral division, and voting area. Recipients are required by Section 19.1 of the Election Act to "take all reasonable steps" to protect it from loss and unauthorized use. Third parties are categorically not permitted to receive it — ever.

What is on the public record about the third party

According to reporting by The Orchard's Jeremy Appel, who was present, an Elections Alberta investigator arrived with four Edmonton Police Service officers at the April 29 launch event of "the Centurion Project" — a new initiative by David Parker, the founder of Take Back Alberta and the activist who played a central role in installing Premier Smith as UCP leader. The investigator was there to follow up on a cease-and-desist letter previously issued to the group.

The Centurion Project, by Parker's own description at the launch, is an app that allows separatists to identify and "claim" potential supporters by sending them surveys — a function that requires voter contact data. As Appel reports, the Election Act provides for fictitious voter information to be inserted into copies of the list specifically so unauthorized use can be traced back to the original recipient. Whoever the legitimate recipient is, Elections Alberta knows.

What is not yet on the public record

As of publication, Elections Alberta has not publicly named the registered political party that allegedly distributed the list. Under the Election Act, the entities entitled to receive the list are political parties, MLAs, constituency associations, and candidates. Parker's Centurion Project is not among them.

The penalty under the Election Act for unauthorized distribution is an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 or, on conviction, imprisonment of up to one year. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta has been notified. The investigation is active.

Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the information contained in the List of Electors, we believe it is critical for Albertans to be aware. Elections Alberta is taking every possible action to determine if this has taken place and, if so, to protect and recover the information. — Elections Alberta, public statement, April 30, 2026

That an independent statutory officer of the Legislative Assembly took the unusual step of publicly announcing the existence of an investigation — while explicitly noting it is "legislatively prohibited from commenting about investigations we may or may not be conducting" — is itself an indicator of how seriously Elections Alberta regards what it has found. This story is unfolding in real time. The site will update as facts are confirmed.

Premier Danielle Smith, after taking office, held telephone conversations with Pastor Artur Pawlowski while he was facing criminal charges related to his role at the Coutts border blockade. CBC News obtained a recording of one such call in which the Premier discussed the prosecution and his case in considerable detail. The Ethics Commissioner subsequently examined the matter.

In a Westminster system, the Premier does not pick up the phone and call accused persons about active prosecutions. That principle is not partisan. It is the boundary that separates a constitutional government from one that isn't. Smith has stated her conduct was appropriate.

On October 27, 2025, the UCP government tabled and passed Bill 2, the Back to School Act, ending a three-week strike by 51,000 Alberta teachers — the largest school walkout in provincial history — by invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to pre-emptively bar any court challenge. The bill imposed a collective agreement that rank-and-file teachers had previously rejected by nearly 90 per cent.

Premier Smith was not in the Legislature when the bill was tabled or when it passed. She had departed Calgary that afternoon for a trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, on which her government later confirmed she travelled by private jet at the expense of the Saudi government.

I have a lot of thoughts about the fact that the premier of this province who invoked a bill to take away the rights of citizens of this province didn't even have the decency to be in the legislature. She should have looked in the eyes of the teachers who were in the galleries. — Jason Schilling, ATA president, October 28, 2025 — quote carried by Global News, CBC, Canadian Press

Schilling described the Premier's absence as "a fundamentally disgraceful thing." Amnesty International Canada condemned the bill as a violation of teachers' rights to bargain collectively, to freedom of expression, and to freedom of association. The notwithstanding clause overrides Charter protections for up to five years; in this case it bars the ATA from any constitutional challenge to its terms.

See the Transparency page for the full record on the undisclosed Saudi flight.