Former Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro has resurfaced (re-resurfaced, actually) as a “senior advisor” to a company called Santis Health.
And what is Santis Health, you ask? Well, according to the Toronto-based company, it’s “a public affairs, strategic advisory, public policy, marketing and communication consultancy that is dedicated to providing first-class counsel and support for clients exclusively in the health care and life sciences sectors across the country.”
That sounds like someone from the firm’s communications department was asked to come up with a nicer way of describing a lobbying firm or the kind of management consulting firm that right-wing governments love to hire now that they’ve hollowed out the civil service.
Be that as it may, according to Santis Health’s Sept. 3 press release, the former United Conservative Party health minister’s “track record of enacting change within the health care system is a testament to his effective leadership, engagement, and bias for action which will help Santis clients tremendously.”
Well, there’s nothing like starting a war with the province’s physicians to show a bias for action, I suppose. In 2020, 98 per cent of the doctors who voted in an Alberta Medical Association survey indicated they had no confidence in Mr. Shandro’s performance as health minister.
Mr. Shandro’s tenure in the health portfolio also included promoting the Babylon virtual medicine smartphone app as a replacement for seeing a physician, followed by privacy concerns about the app. The company that first promoted the app has since gone broke.
His 2020 tantrum at a neighbour over a critical social media post made headlines literally for years. Mr. Shandro was found not guilty of unprofessional behaviour by a Law Society of Alberta panel on July 19 this year.
He also held the Justice and Labour portfolios in the UCP governments of premiers Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith. He returned to the practice of law in Calgary after losing his Calgary-Acadia seat in the 2023 provincial election to the NDP’s Diana Batten.
Last spring it was revealed that Mr. Shandro had been a member of the board of Covenant Health since the previous September. That was the first time he resurfaced.
Apparently for all that time almost no one had been aware of his appointment outside the upper levels of the Roman Catholic Church owned, publicly financed health care organization, Alberta’s second largest provider of health services. His biography simply appeared on the Covenant website on June 1.
Since Covenant Health’s board, chaired by former Progressive Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach, selects and appoints its own members, the UCP Government would have had no official role in the appointment.
But given Premier Smith’s intense interest in health care, it seems likely the UCP gave its nod to the appointment. On Aug. 26, Albertans learned of Ms. Smith’s plans to hand over the operation of some rural Alberta Health Services hospitals to Covenant Health.
Santis Health, which was founded in 2012 and is privately owned, seems to keep a low profile. In addition to Toronto, it has offices in Ottawa and Vancouver.
Very few news stories about the company have appeared in media beyond one saying a consultant in its employ had been nominated as a North Vancouver candidate for the now apparently defunct B.C. United Party. In the aftermath of the unfortunately initialed BCUP’s withdrawal from the upcoming B.C. election in favour of the UCP-adjacent B.C. Conservatives, James Mitchell sensibly ended his campaign.
Shouldn’t that be “‘senior advisor’ to a health consulting company”?
Right you are, Lars. It’s been fixed. DJC
Shandro is a buffoon. Indeed the “Shandemic” was made much worse than it already was by his ineptitude. The recent law society hearing was a farce that only managed to further victimize the people he harmed. He should have been disbarred. I can only guess, but as usual with this gang, one needs to follow the money. In this case I would imagine Santis Health sole purpose is to funnel taxpayer dollars from publicly funded healthcare into a few grifters pockets as quickly as possible.
Well, I assume that Shandro wasn’t hired to lobby the 98% of doctors who disapproved of his performance. It is true he has a track record, but I think saying it is for effective leadership was sugar coating or misstating it. But who said all corporate web sites were 100% accurate.
So I assume his job really is to lobby the one person who despite all the past evidence still seems to have have some confidence in him, our Premier and maybe Covenant Health. However it remains a somewhat of a mystery to me why she stood by her man in this case. He was a minister appointed by her predecessor and she could have easily not reappointed him.
In any event, he also seems to have landed comfortably after his election defeat with a nice board position and now a comfy lobbying job too.
If she kept him on, he must have his uses or knows something which she doesn’t want people to know about. People such as him, just follow the money. Its not about helping any one but themselves.
My take on it all is, Conservatives or parties like them, are waiting for PP to be elected so they can dismantle our health care system. In the meantime they work where they can.
“AARC’s Board of Directors…Tyler Shandro…” “More than 500 guests attended the 22nd annual gala, including: gala chair and AARC board member Ruth Peters and her husband Rob Peters; AARC executive director Dean Vause and his wife Joanne; master of ceremonies Danielle Smith, who hosts a radio show on 770 CHQR; Alberta Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women Leela Aheer; Jason Luan, Alberta associate minister of mental health and addictions”. Whatever happened to the $16 million lawsuit filed by AARC against CBC, or the action against Gillian Findlay, etc.? “On February 13, 2009 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast a Fifth Estate program entitled “Powerless”. This program severely criticized AARC. It questioned the qualifications and training of some of AARC’s employees, the validity of AARC’s treatment model, its advertised success rate and AARC’s business practices. It relied heavily on the allegations of former program participants that they were raped, abused and mistreated while they attended AARC.” “On April 29, 2009 AARC served the CBC with a formal defamation notice.
AARC sued O’Neill, Lunn, Kibble and Bates in four separate defamation actions. Three of the defendants were former AARC participants, one a former AARC employee. On December 27, 2012 AARC filed a claim against the CBC and three of its employees”. Surely it’s newsworthy when an organization that was publicly supported by three successive Alberta Justice Ministers and the current premier sues the CBC for airing a program, for which the host and producer were nominated for Gemini awards, a lawsuit which spans twelve years?
Tired Shambles? He’s on wingnut welfare? Bah ha ha! We’re such a bunch of gullibles!
Hail Shandro ! —where ya been hiding?
‘Every time it hails it hails [ba-doo’ ba-dum]
Bad pennies from Hades…’
How many seats on Catholic health boards and (private-for-profit?) health care lobbyist positions can one ex-health minister hold?
Alas, it appears that his neighbor saw through the driveway schtick. It’s weird that a performance like that can get anyone a job of any kind. Weird, weird, weird.
The grift continues with these defeated UCP politicians.