Alberta Health Services CEO is on leave, province confirms
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The CEO of Alberta Health Services, who took over after a controversial firing in January, has stepped down himself.
Former provincial health bureaucrat Andre Tremblay is on a leave of absence, the provincial hospital agency confirmed Wednesday.
Hospitals Minister Matt Jones appointed current AHS executive Erin O’Neill as interim CEO, a spokesperson wrote in an email.
Eleven months earlier, Tremblay had been appointed AHS’s top executive and sole director after ousting both the entire board and then-CEO Athanas Mentzelopoulos.
He sued AHS and the provincial government for wrongful dismissal, claiming they fired him For Launching an investigation into contracts with private surgical companies he said had ties to government officials,
His claims sparked a political uproar over AHS purchases and allegations of conflict of interest, prompting investigations by the Auditor General, the RCMP and a retired judge.
Tremblay, who was previously Alberta’s deputy minister of health, has also been named in Mentzelopoulos’s allegations. According to her lawsuit, Tremblay surprised her on Jan. 8 by appearing on a Zoom call and telling her she was terminated immediately.
None of Mentzelopoulos’s allegations have been tested in court.
AHS did not disclose the nature and reasons for Tremblay’s leave, saying in an email that it was a human resources matter.
The government of Premier Danielle Smith allowed Tremblay to work simultaneously as the Alberta Health deputy, AHS CEO, and administrator of AHS – its one-member board – for several weeks until Smith arrived. kicked him out Ministry job in mid-February.
The move came as Smith faced internal political pressure to remove Tremblay from one or more of his jobs amid Mentzelopoulos’ allegations. that also includes a memorandum From then-minister Peter Guthrie, who later resigned from cabinet in protest over the AHS controversies, and was then removed from the UCP caucus.
O’Neill, the new interim CEO of AHS, served with Tremblay as assistant deputy minister of Alberta Health earlier this year.
This latest move to the top of AHS comes as the province continues to transfer its responsibilities to several other new Crown agencies, including Acute Care Alberta and Primary Care Alberta. The Smith government has described this as “refocusing” the health system and limiting the role of the AHS to a supervisor of public hospitals rather than an omnipresent provincial health authority.
