{"id":418926,"date":"2025-12-02T06:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/418926\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T06:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:48:17","slug":"danielle-smith-punts-questions-on-health-ceos-election-night-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/418926\/","title":{"rendered":"Danielle Smith punts questions on health CEO\u2019s election night appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pointed to members of her inner circle when asked how Edmonton businessman Sam Mraiche ended up in the hotel room on election night.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Alberta<\/a> Premier Danielle Smith<\/a> pointed to her advisers when asked to explain how an Edmonton businessman whose contracts with the province\u2019s health agency are now under scrutiny <\/b>ended up in a hotel suite with her top lieutenants on the night of the 2023 provincial election. <\/p>\n

A Globe and Mail investigation published over the weekend examined the links between medical supply company executive Sam Mraiche and Ms. Smith\u2019s government. The Globe found Mr. Mraiche, whose company MHCare was awarded more than $600-million in contracts with Alberta Health Services, had more extensive connections to the government than previously reported. Mr. Mraiche has said he acted properly and has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

In May, 2023, Mr. Mraiche joined more than a dozen of Ms. Smith\u2019s closest advisers who watched the provincial election results roll in at a downtown Calgary hotel.<\/p>\n

The Premier, when asked Monday how Mr. Mraiche ended up in the hotel room on election night, pointed to members of her inner circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to ask my advisers. I was watching it with my husband and then made my way around to a lot of different suites that night,\u201d Ms. Smith said at an unrelated news conference in Calgary.<\/p>\n

Who is Sam Mraiche? Inside Alberta\u2019s health care controversy<\/a><\/p>\n

The Globe reported that the election-night gathering included Ms. Smith\u2019s current chief of staff, Rob Anderson, and her then-chief of staff, Marshall Smith. Neither Mr. Anderson nor Mr. Smith responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mraiche\u2019s lawyers also did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In a letter MHCare sent to the government in April, it said: \u201cThe unspectacular truth is that Mr. Mraiche\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Smith\u2019s United Conservative government has been under fire since February when the former chief executive of Alberta Health Services alleged in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit that she was fired for investigating MHCare\u2019s business with the organization, surgical contracts she considered overpriced, and conflicts of interest at the agency. The government has said the former CEO, Athana Mentzelopoulos, was fired for incompetence. None of the allegations have been proven in court.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Premier and her Justice Minister repeatedly referred to a report by a retired Manitoba judge that the government has said clears it of wrongdoing. <\/p>\n

Details of Premier\u2019s ties to businessman underscore need for public probe, Alberta NDP says<\/a><\/p>\n

Raymond Wyant, who was appointed by the government to look into procurement, found 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. Wyant said no elected officials were interviewed and that he was unable to make a \u201cfinal and absolute determination\u201d as to whether there was wrongful interference. (The Premier said Mr. Wyant did not request an interview with her or her ministers.)<\/p>\n

Sam Blackett, spokesperson for the Premier, said that \u201cat no time has Mr. Mraiche ever spoken to the premier about any of his businesses or business interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Ms. Smith maintained that she has only seen Mr. Mraiche socially on a handful of occasions, which she suggested was no different from her interactions with others who do business with government.<\/p>\n

The Globe also obtained a copy of Ms. Smith\u2019s private calendar from her 2022 UCP leadership bid in which she was scheduled to dine with Mr. Mraiche at his north Edmonton home that August. Five days later, she was booked for a Zoom call with Mr. Mraiche and Jitendra Prasad, a former senior purchasing official with Alberta Health Services.<\/p>\n

Mr. Blackett confirmed Ms. Smith did meet with Mr. Prasad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had the reputation at the time of being an expert in the health system,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

Alberta health officials were also directors at a company linked to a supplier<\/a><\/p>\n

In the Alberta Legislature, the Alberta NDP on Monday used the new revelations by The Globe to reiterate its calls for a public inquiry into the controversy, and asked Justice Minister Mickey Amery whether he first introduced Mr. Mraiche to the Premier. <\/p>\n

Mr. Amery, who is related to Mr. Mraiche<\/a>, referred to Mr. Wyant\u2019s investigation into AHS\u2019s procurement practices, published in October, which he said exonerated elected officials. <\/p>\n

Mr. Amery, in the legislature, pinned responsibility for the procurement shortcomings on AHS.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wyant \u201dfound that procurement processes and contracts that were dealt with by AHS [decision-makers] and some of their employees were done improperly, and that\u2019s why this government and this Premier took immediate steps to ensure that will never happen again,\u201d Mr. Amery said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Smith was attending an energy conference in Calgary on Monday and did not attend Question Period in the Alberta Legislature.<\/p>\n

Alberta Health Services has paid MHCare roughly $614-million for medical supplies since the start of 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. Those companies proposed 15-year contracts worth roughly $430-million, according to a January memo.<\/p>\n

Alberta Auditor-General Doug Wylie and the RCMP are separately investigating the issue. Mr. Wylie has said he\u2019s rushing to finish his investigation within the next six months after the government denied him a two-year term extension. His contract is to expire in April, 2026.<\/p>\n

Ms. Smith, in an interview with Juno News published Monday, said her biggest regret as Premier has been failing to adequately scrutinize AHS\u2019s procurement practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy leaving things in the hands solely of an agency that had no oversight, there are some things that went wrong,\u201d Ms. Smith told the outlet, adding her government will soon require stronger conflict-of-interest checks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pointed to members of her inner circle when asked…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":415175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-418926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}