Message to Alberta Health Services’ new interim chief executive officer and to whomever follows him as CEO: “Don’t let the revolving door hit you on the way out!”
How many chief executive officers has AHS had since premier Ed Stelmach’s Progressive Conservative Government promised in 2008 to create “a 21st century health care system” and started setting up the province-wide “superboard” as it was known at the time?
A full dozen! I kid you not! But only 11 if you don’t want to count former medical lab boss Charlotte Robb, the province-wide public health care agency’s first CEO, appointed by Mr. Stelmach’s health minister, Ron Liepert, in May 2008 to run the place until its official start-up date on April Fool’s Day 2009. No joke.
Leastways, here’s the list I was able to cobble together yesterday as I contemplated what has to be the slowest-motion train wreck in history as a parade of Conservative premiers and heath ministers couldn’t keep their paws off the management of AHS.
For starters, just so we know who we’re talking about, let’s look at the list of CEOs. No need to dwell too much on their qualifications, because with the revolving door to the AHS C-suite spinning as fast as it does, the problem obviously isn’t primarily the executives, it’s their mostly-Conservative political masters.
Here they are, the many CEOs of AHS:
Charlotte Robb, diagnostic lab executive, Interim CEO, May-March 2008
Stephen Duckett, Australian health economist, CEO, January 2009-November 2010
Chris Eagle, physician, CEO, April 2011-October 2013
Duncan Campbell, accountant, CEO, October-November 2013
Brenda Huband, health care manager, Co-CEO, November 2013-March 2014
Rick Trimp, ditto
Vickie Kaminski, Registered Nurse, CEO, May 2014-November 2015
Verna Yiu, physician, CEO, January 2016-April 2022
Mauro Chies, health executive, CEO, April 2022-March 2023
Sean Chilton, Registered Nurse, Interim CEO, October 2022-December 2023
Athana Mentzelopoulos, senior civil servant, CEO, December 2023-January 2025
Andre Tremblay, senior civil servant, Interim CEO, last Wednesday to the present
In addition, during the time AHS has been a legal entity, two “official administrators” were appointed by Conservative governments, professional consultant Janet Davidson, who served as a one-woman board of directors for four months in 2013, and physician and Health Quality Council of Alberta CEO John Cowell, who did the same job in 2013 and again from November 2022 to March 2023.
While it is true Ms. Davidson and Dr. Cowell were not technically chief executive officers, their roles were more CEO-like than that of a normal board. So if you wanted to be really bold, you could argue that in 17 years AHS has had 14 CEOs, 15 if you count Dr. Cowell twice, as you probably should!
Notable moments include the 2010 firing of Dr. Duckett, the bright but undiplomatic Australian academic, after he embarrassed the Stelmach Government with his notorious “cookie walk” away from a pack of journalists who were annoying him. That was the government’s excuse, anyway.
There was Dr. Eagle’s surprise departure after two and a half years of his four-year contract in 2013, followed by Mr. Campbell being ordered back to the chief financial officer’s office after a couple of months on the job, and the weird two-person CEO condominium that followed him.
There was the resignation in November 2015 of Vickie Kaminski, the nurse-manager from Newfoundland brought in by the PC government shortly before it dumped Premier Alison Redford. She accused the new NDP government of political interference in a conveniently leaked letter.
Sarah Hoffman, who served as Rachel Notley’s health minister from 2015 to 2019, told me yesterday: “Yeah, I wouldn’t let them privatize laundry service.” Ms. Hoffman was also, to her credit, aggressive about keeping medical lab services in the public sector, where subsequent events have proved they belong.
Plus, of course, there was this week’s unexpected departure of Ms. Mentzelopoulos, for reasons that will probably never be explained.
Indeed, the only extended period of relative stability in the AHS C Suite seems to have been between 2016 and 2022 when Verna Yiu capably ran the organization through the difficult years of the pandemic. She was fired by Jason Kenney’s UCP government, basically for being too competent and too committed to public health care.
It’s hard to know how much all this cost. Dr. Duckett is known to have been paid out at least $735,630. Dr. Yiu received a settlement payment of $660,000. And Ms. Mentzelopoulos can be expected to receive he base annual salary of $583,443 for the week she worked in 2025.
Well, we’ve all heard the old story about how Conservatives make more competent managers.
As the ongoing chaos at AHS shows, that’s about as funny as the old joke about the sultan who blamed his 300 wives because he had no children. That is, it’s not very funny, but it has basically the same point.
And from now on, we can expect things to get even worse as Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party hires multiple layers of high-paid managers, including four or five more CEOs, to run the bureaucratic and fragmented health care system it’s bent on creating.
Struggling education workers set to strike as UCP MLAs vote themselves a raise
It’s not that United Conservative Party MLAs can’t read the room – I’m pretty sure they just don’t think they need to.
Yesterday, as struggling education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees gave 72-hour strike notice to the Edmonton and Sturgeon public school boards, UCP committee members in the Legislature voted to give themselves an increase to their six-figure MLA salaries, a generous golden parachute for those who face the wrath of the voters at some future date, and a big boost in funding for caucus propaganda.
MLAs deserve a decent salary for their important work, of course, just as education workers do for theirs. Base pay for MLAs is almost $121,000, with lots of cash add-ons for committee members, cabinet members, and those who don’t live in Edmonton. The average Alberta educational support worker, meanwhile, earns $34,500 a year, which CUPE justly calls starvation wages.
Finance Minister Nate Horner accused CUPE of “misleading their members and the public on their members’ wages” – although you’d think the workers would know what they’re paid. “The work of Educational Assistants is important, but only takes place part-time and only during the school year,” he said. “No one would expect to earn a full-time salary for 10 months of part-time work.”
Well, no one except a UCP MLA, presumably, although 10 months of work would be a bit of a reach for your average government backbencher. Tacky.
If there’s no deal tomorrow or over the weekend, the CUPE members will hit the bricks on Monday morning.
NOTE: AHS was officially created on April 1, 2009. For some reason I wrote 2024 in this spot and didn’t notice it for a full day. It’s been corrected. In addition, I should apologize to Mr. Tremblay for the extraneous Y that attached itself to his first name in an earlier version of this story. DJC
In the grand scheme of things I’d suggest the MLAs in Alberta are over paid, while the teaching assistants are under paid. B.C.’s salaries for the teaching assistants aren’t that good either.
B.C. also has a number of vacancies, Surrey School Board has 48 vacancies. With low pay no wonder and Alberta may find their teaching assistances leaving the jobs also for more lucrative fields. Perhaps it is time for the teaching assistance to “apply” for jobs as MLAs. Hey, its one way of getting a raise.
Believe it or not, EAs and teachers now earn 5 percent lower wages compared to highest pay in Canada before Alberta Disadvantage became a thing.
Why isn’t this a surprise? As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
So the only period of stability was when the competent NDP Minister of Health appointed the competent Dr Verna Yiu to the post. We should really focus on electing more competent politicians. They don’t seem to be conservatives.
Erica: This is a correct analysis on all counts, in my opinion. But it is incumbent upon the more capable Opposition party to actually make that point during an election campaign, which means attacking the government party’s polices, not just its batshit leader. DJC
You crack me up! If I were your blog nanny? You’d get a paddlin’! But “batshit”? Well, appropriate is as the ink stained wretch inscribes!
This high turn over of AHS directors and their accompanying (average) $500,000 payouts when they get dumped, just points out yet again, that the average Canadian voter doesn’t keep track of what our politicians are doing and saying. So many Alberta voters think Smith and her minions are doing a good job, even as they waste $100’s of millions on all kinds of nitwit decisions!
“The work of Educational Assistants is important, but only takes place part-time…”
One of the frustrations my former teacher wife had with Educational Assistants was that technically they were only on the clock during the school day. As a result, there was no opportunity for her to confer with her assistants, unless they voluntarily gave up their time before or after school. So, the government deliberately underfunds EA’s time, then uses that an excuse to further under pay them.
Not very good job security, less than a year and a half on average. Maybe they should form a CEOs union!
Although I suspect the payouts have been generous and some could cover the wages for a dozen or more educational workers. The UCP and Smith again seem to be penny wise, pound foolish spending lavishly on well paid admin positions and restricting spending on low paying positions.
Aside from all the wasted money on this revolving door of CEOs and Senior Management, this excess turn over must also be very disruptive in trying to run an effective and smooth functioning health care system.
And yes, this will probably only get worse as the UCP replaces AHS with several organizations. When we look back and ask who destroyed health care in Alberta? The UCP, and it was an inside job.
Fox in charge of henhouse = mla’s setting their own salary.
Something is truly wrong with this math.
Black humor aside, this is a conflict of interest. Give the responsibility to the Lt. Governor. They pick a non-partisan committee of human resources professionals who set the remuneration and benefits.
Gerald: I agree, this is how it should be done, although not necessarily through the LG’s office for constitutional reasons. Regardless, such plans usually fall apart, ironically because Conservative governments want to cut MLA pay for political reasons. I do not think this leads to worse quality MLAs, by the way, but it does increase the temptation for graft, and this is more likely to be a problem with Conservative than progressive governments but Conservatives are more likely to believe that the laws are for us little people, and not for them. For the same reason, there should be a generous pension for elected officials. DJC
Does alberta have an equivalent to the parliamentary budget office? Setting mla pay sounds like something that would fall into legislative budget office purview.
Gerald: This is an excellent question, but one, I’m afraid, that I can’t find the answer to tonight or over the weekend. There is no reason other than political considerations that Alberta couldn’t set up an independent commission to set MLA salaries. I can tell you that Alberta MLAs were until recently the highest paid in Canada, by a considerable margin in some cases. With base pay of $120,936 before the changes approved yesterday, they now appear to be only the second highest paid, after members of Quebec’s National Assembly, whose base pay is $131,776. However, to dig into the history of how MLA pay has been determined in Alberta will take some calls. DJC
Perhaps the greatest attribute of a Kon apparatchik is the ability to bring the spirit of entrepreneurship to public service. Arguably the most inspiring exaple is that of Paddy Meade. Ms. Meade managed to navigate the difficult transition from the position of Deputy Minister of Health in the wonderfully moderate Kon regime of Ed Stelmach, where she worked to create the Superboard, to that of Executive Operating Officer of that very same Superboard. Paddy put her nose to the grindstone and stuck it out for nearly nine months at AHS, and then resigned with $1.3 million in severance, including her $250k bonus in 2009. Deceptively nimble, Ms. Meade then landed in the Northwest Territories, where, according to the Government of the NWT, she held on for two years as Deputy Minister and was projected to be missed at the time of her departure in mid-2011. Not to fear, Paddy landed at the IHSTS health think tank, and was back in government in the Yukon to ring in the new year in 2013 as deputy minister of Health and Social Services. Paddy laboured in the salt mines of the Yukon ministry for a full three years, before yet another sudden departure. Unlike sunny Alberta, the Land of the Midnight sun couldn’t cast any light on the payout, but with her track record of making the juice worth the squeeze suggests it was more than ample. It all worked out in the end, and Paddy’s hard work in the public service has freed her to pursue her true calling, as a self-taught artist. And Skippy has the temerity to say that Canada is broken!
Ms. Paddy Meade’s tenure was full of irony. She required that all non-routine expenses and promotions and changes in salary be approved by her. Of course, the answer was invariably “no”. I was in management at that time and I was asked to take on my boss’s position on an interim basis. I asked to be paid according to the added responsibilities and Ms. Meade’s response was no – quote: “Everyone needs to come to bat for the good of the organization”…No doubt she has been rewarded again and again for her ability to say “no”.
I wonder if Ms Mentzelopoulos will be taking an active role in her buddy, Christie Clark’s, run for the leadership of the LPC? I suspect doing that and being a high-level desk jockey for a populist conservative government don’t go together.
Nice golden handshake, tho’, considering she ran Alberta’s teachers’ pension plan into the underperforming arms of AIMco.
As per usual, the more one makes [whether ‘earned’ or not], the further her/his view of other’s reality diminishes.
And then there is the federal Liberals with their ludicrous $350,000 ‘entry fee’ to the leadership contest. To me, it leaves out the very people/person who might actually bring some life back to that moribund party.
Bruce: You’ll note that I only referred to the Educational Assistants’ and school support staff’s earnings as earned. DJC
‘Twas $300,000 for the cons last time around.
Thank you for the Cookie Monster. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Some people have “where were you when” memories about JFK, the space shuttle or Princess Diana. This one is mine, all mine.
Please accept my submission of the entire known history of AHS in this alternate universe we call “Alberta”. Love to hate, hate to love, home sweet-as-a-cookie home.
https://youtu.be/mQE0LQFFn3s?feature=shared
I think we’ll be getting a baker’s dozen before you know it. Don’t you love a bonus?
the statement within this commentary “… the story about how conservatives make more competent managers.” reminds me of the wisdom of that great american philosopher p.j. o’roarke.
” the democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer and remove the weeds from your lawn. the republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work – then gets elected and proves it.”
I think that Dante gave up he when realized he needed to craft a tenth circle! Horse shit! Up to their noses!
No surprise whatsoever.
I mean really, this is a Government that actively plays the ‘shell game’ with voters. Most often with/for shiney objects.
What would you expect from a Government that claims their rightful share of the CPP assets is 53%? And actually expect voters to believe that nonsense.
Well perhaps not some of their most far right UCP supporters who appear to accept and support any twaddle from our Premier. Regardless of the logic or facts behind it.
It is an indication of their disdain for the voters. As is their management of health care in Alberta and more particularly the AHS.
This just isn’t funny or acceptable any longer. Not OK. My family has real health problems. I am a doctor who mistrusts this health care system. I was born and raised in Alberta. I worked hard in school, and I helped people. I’ve spoken with managers, patients, colleagues, the public, and MLA’s. For 27 years of my career. I am leaving this province. Too much. It should have changed for the better by now. We’ve all done enough suffering and learning by now. Time for boundary setting.
Just a little tidbit about one of the entries on your long list of AHS CEOs & interim CEOs: Sean Chilton — the only person on that list with whom I’m on a first-name basis.
A very long time ago — round about 1990 or ’91, if memory serves — a team of nurse managers & HR types from Grande Prairie’s Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, where I worked as an ICU nurse, went to the British Isles on a nurse recruitment trip, and brought back a couple dozen British and Irish RNs. One of those new British recruits to Canadian nursing was Sean Chilton, who started out in our ICU, and I did his orientation.
A couple years later, QE II management set out on its first foray into computerization in the clinical space, and Sean was seconded from his bedside job to the computer implementation team. His hobnobbing with the right people — golfing and curling with managers was the way to get ahead back then — paid off in terms of his upward mobility: when the first Regional Health Authority, then known as the Mistahia Health Region, created its first org chart, he was put into one of the “bubbles” known as “Program Leaders”. [Side note: the design of that org chart was, shall we say, unconventional, with leaders placed into little round shapes without the usual lines of accountability and reporting that characterizes such documents, and looked like bubbles coming off a glass of ginger ale. Those leaders were promptly nicknamed “bubble heads” by front-line staff].
As the Mistahia Health Region, then its larger successor Peace Country Health, went on, Sean’s career in middle and upper management progressed apace. He eventually relocated to Lethbridge to take a senior position with the Chinook Health Region, and later with AHS’ South Zone, before eventually becoming a V-P of Alberta Health Services.
A few years ago, while I was serving in a governance capacity with the regulatory body of my profession, I was at a function of some description that included representatives from AHS, Covenant Health and the Ministry of Health, among others. Someone from AHS management told me she wanted to “introduce” me to someone more senior in AHS and led me to where Sean was. Imagine her surprise when she saw immediately that we already knew each other — we were all, “hey, how’s it going? it’s been a while hasn’t it? how’s the fam?”, etc.
This is all à propos of nothing significant, except perhaps that (1) while the government may shuffle the deck chairs upon a semi-regular basis, oftentimes the butts in those chairs stay the same, and (2) it can be interesting to see from what humble beginnings some people rise to prominence, and why.