Alberta health boss quit over NDP interference

EDMONTON • Alberta Health Services’ former chief executive officer claims she resigned halfway through her contract because of the NDP government’s “troubling” practice of interfering in AHS matters, which prevented her from doing her job independently.

According to a letter obtained by CBC News, Vicki Kaminski wrote to the new AHS board that she felt the government’s heavy-handedness was putting her professional reputation in jeopardy.

“There are many examples of how this has played out over the past several months,” she wrote in the letter, according to CBC.

“Some of the examples transcend both the former government and the newly elected government of Alberta.

“More recently however, many (examples of political interference) are simply rooted in an ideology of the new government that does not allow AHS to do what needs to be, and should be done,” Kaminski wrote.

However, AHS board chair Linda Hughes said the letter written last November “looks backwards and is not reflective of the present day.

“Keeping Albertans healthy is the goal for all of us and this requires a team approach with many partners, including AHS, the AHS Board and Alberta Health. We value this partnership and team approach, and we are working together in a productive and collaborative manner,” Hughes wrote in a statement Wednesday.

Health Minister Sarah Hoffman’s spokesman Tim Wilson said the minister saw the letter for the first time during an interview with CBC Tuesday and the government does not have a copy.

“I understand that from the tone of the letter, she feels that there was interference,” Hoffman said in an interview with CBC News. “I think it was governing.”

Kaminski detailed several concerns in her letter, one of which was the health ministry’s tendency to write “cryptic emails” and add that more would be said in “voice mode,” ensuring there would be no paper trail.

She also claimed that the NDP government interfered with contract negotiations with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, according to the CBC.

The Wildrose Party said it received a heavily redacted version of Kaminski’s letter and is now urging the government to release it in full.

“Many Albertans are already worried that the NDP government is focused more on ideology instead of outcomes, but today many more feel that the NDP can no longer be trusted to manage the health care system,” said Wildrose leader Brian Jean.

Last November, Kaminski notified AHS she planned to resign in the new year based on a “personal decision.”

Kaminski signed up for a three-year term as CEO after leaving a similar position in Newfoundland and Labrador. She now works in Australia as the chief transformation officer for the Australian government’s SA Health agency.