(Government of Alberta)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Opposition/Friends of Medicare Respond

Premier Smith issues statement following infrastructure minister’s resignation

Feb 25, 2025 | 2:56 PM

Premier Danielle Smith issued a statement Tuesday following the resignation of Minister of Infrastructure Pete Guthrie:

“I have accepted the resignation of MLA Pete Guthrie from his position of Minister of Infrastructure.

“He has obviously expressed concerns regarding the allegations made by the former CEO of Alberta Health Services. As I have said repeatedly, those allegations are serious and are being fully investigated.

“We have pledged our government’s full cooperation and support to the Auditor General to expedite his review so we can have answers as soon as possible.

“I have also directed our senior civil service to retain a highly credible third party with a strong legal background capable of investigating this matter independently of government so we can understand exactly what occurred with regard to the AHS procurement processes in question.

“We also want to determine why, despite months of requests, AHS never brought any substantive evidence or documentation related to this matter to the Minister of Health or to government.

“I want to reiterate that I was not involved in these procurement decisions, nor am I aware of any wrongdoing with regard to the issues raised by the former CEO. My actions were straightforward: the government made a policy decision to expand surgical facilities to tackle the critical issue of wait times, and we all trusted that that direction would be acted upon and implemented by AHS.

“We remain committed to addressing surgical wait times and increasing the number of publicly funded surgeries performed in the province and are also committed to continuing the important work of re-focusing our health care system to better serve Albertans.”

Christina Gray, Alberta New Democrat Leader of the Opposition, issued her own statement in resposne:

“Today’s resignation should have been the Health Minister. And the Premier herself should step aside while her government is investigated for the worst corruption scandal Alberta has ever seen.

“The Premier may think she can sweep the CorruptCare scandal under the rug with the resignation of one minister, but she’s wrong.

“Today’s resignation is one more reason that the only solution here is a judicial-led public inquiry into the growing CorruptCare scandal.”

Chris Gallaway, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare issued a statement as well on Tuesday:

“Today’s decision made by Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie to resign his cabinet position highlights just how serious the allegations about government procurement and contracts really are.

“Albertans deserve full accountability and transparency in terms of how our public dollars have been spent.

“The health minister needs to resign and an independent public inquiry needs to be called immediately. At this point anything less is completely unacceptable.”