Hughes defends AHS expense standards

With his own expenses under scrutiny, former Alberta Health Services chair turned energy minister Ken Hughes said Friday that the health superboard established a new and higher standard on such disbursements when it was established in 2008.

But the Wildrose Party said it plans to go through the expense files of health officials and invited the public to do the same to demand further accountability.

In response to freedom of information requests, AHS on Thursday released expenses of three senior executives and Hughes, who served as the first chair of the board.

Hughes — who resigned as chair at the end of 2011 and was elected as the MLA for Calgary-West — said he was confident in AHS’s policies around expenses.

“We wanted to set a high standard of governance that would be at a different and new level from the predecessor organizations,” he said.

Among Hughes’ expenditures on the public dime were a $550 hotel room in Toronto for one night in October, 2008 and a $325 charge for a room at the Hay-Adam Hotel in Washington in March, 2010.

But Hughes said the Toronto suite included a separate room that he used to conduct interviews with potential board members, while the Washington hotel was the site of meetings with White House officials and the Alberta-based Norlien Foundation on early childhood development.

“In all cases I’ve been pretty careful about the use of public resources,” he said.

Other health officials who had their expenses released this week include AHS president Dr. Chris Eagle, former executive vice-president Alison Tonge and chief of staff Patti Grier.

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said her party had made freedom of information requests on those documents and the files of other AHS officials.

“As we get these documents we are going to put them online ... so the public can do their own audit,” said Smith.