United Conservative Party expels MLA who pushed for public probe of health contracting | CBC News

An MLA and former minister just removed from the United Conservative Party caucus alleges the health minister — and possibly the premier — withheld information from cabinet ministers deciding the fate of the Alberta Health Services board of directors.

UCP caucus members voted Wednesday morning to expel Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, who will now sit as an independent MLA.

Inside the legislative chamber on Wednesday, Guthrie tabled to the clerk a February 25, 2025, letter that he had sent to Premier Danielle Smith on the day he resigned from cabinet as infrastructure minister.

In the letter, he said ministers attending a health cabinet committee meeting on Jan. 30, 2025, were "deliberately misled," which led to the government firing AHS board members the next day. He said he could not abide those actions.

"If we can normalize such deception in government business practices, what other indiscretions may emerge?" Guthrie's letter says.

Guthrie's allegations come after former CEO of Alberta Health Services Athana Mentzelopoulos filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the health authority and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.