EDMONTON – A high-ranking health executive who billed taxpayers $7,000 for a trip to the Mayo Clinic also expensed more than $10,000 for lavish dinners, booze and charity balls in support of Catholic organizations.
Documents released by the Wildrose opposition show former Capital Health vice-president Michele Lahey expensed $4,300 for the Nov. 5, 2005, St. Joseph’s Annual Gala Fundraiser, which Lahey described as a “heavenly evening of dining” on her expense form.
She expensed $3,000 for St. Joseph’s College Gala, $1,200 to the Hope Foundation of Alberta and $1,700 to host the Friar’s Ball on May 6, 2006, advertised as “one of the top social events of the year.”
All the donations were made between 2005 and 2007 by Lahey’s husband, former provincial Crown prosecutor Bill Gatward. Lahey expensed the donations to Capital Health and they were approved by health authority CEO Sheila Weatherill.
Faced with fresh allegations of fiscal impropriety Monday, Premier Alison Redford first accused the opposition of “fearmongering” and urged them to take their allegations to independent agencies for review, then said the province will look into the allegations.
“I will not stand in this house and concede that all of the suggestions made by the opposition are somehow accurate simply because they said them,” Redford said. “It’s entirely appropriate to raise these issues. There’s no reason for us not to look into them, and we will.”
Expense records released Tuesday also show another senior vice-president billed $3,000 for an eight-day intensive retreat.
In the legislature, the Wildrose tabled documents that show Joanne Stalinski, senior vice-president of wellness in the Calgary Health Authority, billed more than $5,000 for a personal trainer and more than $3,000 for an eight-day intensive residential program at the Hoffman Institute of Canada.
The institute’s website says the program reviews the first 12 years of childhood to see how and why participants have become like their parents and how those behaviour patterns fail to serve them in their personal and professional lives.
“The Hoffman Process gives you emotional tools to allow you to have the choice to let go of many limiting belief systems so that you can enjoy the banquet of life instead of just settling for the crumbs,” the website says.
Health Minister Fred Horne announced Thursday the government has asked former Chief Justice Allan Wachowich to provide a legal opinion as to whether the government can recover any improper expenses claimed by employees of the former regional health authorities. The cost of that report and the due date have not been established.
Opposition parties and journalists have filed freedom-of-information requests for expense records for health executives going back more than five years. Some have been released, others are tied up in the legal process.
Redford said she has “absolutely no doubt” the opposition will continue dragging skeletons out of fiscal closet, but reiterated that Alberta Health Services will handle the release of the records.
“To sort of tar and feather this government with that system is ridiculous, because we created a different system, we created a different set of rules with respect to expense guidelines, we’ve changed the administration and the governance of AHS,” Redford said. “To somehow suggest that this government would defend those actions is ridiculous.”
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