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THE UCP IS COSTING ALBERTANS BILLIONS OF $$$

As of August 2025 - I am sure we are missing lots!

General

  • UNFOIPABLE - The Energy War Room - brought back under the Government. Initial funding of $30 Million in 2020 dropped to $2.84 Million and allegedly $12 Million/per year since 2021.  So $56.84 Million of your money.
  • Andrew Leach observed, “You’d have been forgiven for wondering if the sole mission of the [the war room] was to make every other government expenditure seem like a bargain.”

General Total: $37,297,056,429.46

Education/$ not funding public education.

  • Education - private schools/modulars etc. 2024-25 Total - $832 million ($705 million)
  • $125 million increase to be shared by all school authorities
  • $90 million to procure 100 portables.
  • $408 million for private schools and accredited childcare centers
  • $80 million is going immediately towards expanding the infrastructure for specialized programming at publicly funded but privately operated charter schools and collegiate schools, both of which can turn away students, with another $22 million in each of 2025 and 2026 for a total of $124 million.
  • Meanwhile, $50 million will be spent on acquiring modular, or portable, classrooms for schools that are overcapacity, with funding reaching $103 million over three years.
  • Alberta solidifies funding for new schools | CityNews Calgary  March 1, 2024
  • $381million for 43 priority projects = each project gets $1,883,720

 

  • Education Curriculum  - Education $64.4 Million Conservative/NDP 2016 curriculum
  • UCP Curriculum Development over 4 years $64 Million no teachers involved
  • Charter schools - $171 Million over 3 years.

  • (Foundations for the Future Academy - Charter School) $118 Million - Rajan Sawhney’s Daughter is on the board.

  • Testing for learning loss K-6
  • It will start in Grade 1 in September and go to Grade 3. Retesting in January, when Kindergarten will join in Kindergarten is not a mandatory program in Alberta
  • Literacy testing - 10 mins per student, 2 test phonemes and sight words
  • Numeracy testing - 20- 30 mins per student (three tests administered one-on-one). The new testing regimen means first- and second-grade teachers will spend the whole month of September doing the individual tests mandated by the provincial government. A month of teaching as was lost.
  • Cost: $10 million allocated for learning disruption support - https:www.reddeeradvocate.com/local-news/alberta-announces-more-testing-for-elementary-school-students-7441287   
  • Here is the funding manual - Funding Manual for School Authorities 2023/24 School Year | Open Government 
  • Charter schools receive 100% funding per student, as well as building allocations
  • Private schools have been changed to Independent Schools - they receive 70%/student allocation as well as building. The Islamic School in Edmonton raised $20 million to build a new school. The Alberta Government is putting in $60 million

  • Canceled ADLC 
  • Savings of $14 million for the government, but irreparable damage to distance education, all to give $$ to private and homeschooling associations. The curriculum and materials were available to all Alberta school boards.

Education Total:  $1,620,400,000.00

FSCD Funding Cuts

Staff cuts will affect hundreds of families of kids with disabilities, parents say - St. Albert News  

Post Secondary Education Cuts

Post Secondary Education Total: $500,000,000

Health Care

  • Turkish Tylenol - $80 million - $49 million is being held by MH Care, and they get to collect the interest on it. ($100 million if you include transportation, storage, and disposal fees) over $5,000/bottle delivered.

Sole Source contract MHCare

Supplies were made in China, and there were some pretty significant quality control issues.  (total given in single source MH Care contracts $614 million)

  • Telus Babylon - Commissioner investigation Reports 021
  • Alberta Sunshine list shows taxpayers paid millions to fire top AHS brass in 2022  $3.62 million

Fiscal Year 2022–2023: $3.62 Million in Severance

  • In 2022, the first full year of Smith’s premiership, AHS paid **$3.62 million in severance** to 23 executives, directors, and managers, including those associated with the initial dismissal of the 11-member AHS board.
  • Key payouts included:  
  • **Dr. Verna Yiu (Former AHS CEO)**: Received $660,000 after being terminated a year before her contract expired.
  • **Dr. Deena Hinshaw (Former Chief Medical Officer)**: Ousted in November 2022, with a severance entitlement exceeding $181,000.
  • This period also saw the termination of the AHS board, though the exact portion of the $3.62 million allocated to board members remains unspecified.

Fiscal Year 2023–2024: $9.5 Million in Severance

  • By the following fiscal year, severance obligations ballooned to **$9.5 million**, covering 33 terminated AHS employees, including seven senior executives dismissed in late 2023
  • Notable payments included:  
  • **Mauro Chies (Former AHS President and CEO)**:  Terminated in November 2023 with a severance package worth **$1.38 million**, covering salary through November 2025
  • **Dr. François Bélanger (Former Vice-President of Quality)**: Received **$1.07 million**

Fiscal Year 2024–2025: Mounting Legal Claims

  • The January 2025 firing of CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos and the AHS board has triggered further liabilities.
  • Estimates put the severance of the 2025 board (without Mentzelopoulos) at $9.05 million**
  • Mentzelopoulos filed a **$1.7 million wrongful dismissal lawsuit**, alleging she was terminated for investigating irregularities in private surgical contracts. Her claims suggest political interference in procurement processes, including pressure to approve overpriced agreements with private providers.
  • The province is expected to pay multiple millions in legal fees.

Structural and Political Implications  

Contractual Obligations and Executive Compensation  

  • AHS employment contracts for senior leaders typically guarantee **up to 24 months’ salary** upon termination without cause.
  • For example:   - Mauro Chies’s 2023 salary was $583,443, making his severance package worth approximately **$1.4 million**
  • - Mentzelopoulos’s lawsuit seeks $1.7 million, reflecting the remaining value of her four-year contract.
  • These contractual terms, combined with Smith’s rapid leadership changes, have turned severance into a recurring budget line item.
  • Private Orthopedic Surgery Centers are approximately $400 million over what they would pay through AHS, refusal to fund the Royal Alex Surgical Center to do complicated surgeries. MH Care’s Sam Mraiche is a shareholder in some of the Orthopedic Centers. So, single-source contracts over $1 billion.
  • AHS has been broken into four different organizations - now make it site-based management. If you think that rural hospital closures were bad before. Buckle up, it’s going to get worse!
  • Appointed the former Deputy Minister of Health as CEO, and appointed two deputy ministers of health.  There is no separation between the government and health care; they are directly responsible for where health care is today. (March 2025)
  • Fired CEO Athana Menthalopous and the Board in January of 2025.
  • A wrongful dismissal suit was filed with the courts. The UCP has more than 3 investigations into the matter and has them all reporting back to Smith. The only hope to find out what is going on is to support the court case for Athana.
  • The separation of Health Care into four silos - Primary Care, Acute Care, Assisted Living, and Mental Health and Addictions. Costing Albertans four times the cost of administration - (Each Deputy Minister makes over $300,000/year), so add $1.2 million.
  • $17.243 Billion Alberta paid to AHS in 2022-23
  • $26 Billion for Alberta Health in 2024 = an almost $9 Billion increase.
  • https://www.thealbertan.com/local-news/budget-2024-health-spending-climbs-to-26-billion-a-44-per-cent-increase-8379679 
  • https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-health-care-cost-restructure-ahs $85 million to transition. Total so far $9.85 billion increase. (We think it costs more than the $85 million.)

 

Health Care Total: $4,535,814,222.07 new updated total $13,120,000.00 + $9,850,000,000 (2025 update) = $14,385,814,222 that’s $14.385 billion, - How many nurses, doctors, and health care workers would $14.385 billion pay for? How much could we give in raises?

APP

  • LifeWorks Report  - $1.8 million for Pension Plan report. There are no names or contact info on the report.
  • APP Ad Campaign and Jim Dinning-led public engagement panel - $7.5 million

APP Total: $9,300,000.00

Municipal Interference

  • Calgary’s Greenline - $2.2 billion in sunk costs
  • RStar oil and gas cleanup - $383 million
  • The provincial government told Edmonton and Calgary to raise their education portion of their municipal taxes - those taxes go to the Provincial government into their general funds coffers, not even to education.

Municipal Interference Total: $2,881,810,000.00

Lobbying/Lawsuits

  • Cole Schulz, husband of Rebecca Schulz lobbying for Oil and Gas Co
  • Lawsuits launched against the feds/ (10)

Alberta wins

AIMCo

AIMCo Total: $10,400,000,000.00

Severance pkgs AHS

Dr. Verna Yiu - $660,000.00

Chies - $1,400,000.00

Mentzalopoulos - $583,434.00

Total:  $2,943,434.00

More turmoil in Alberta Health Services as latest president and CEO departs | CBC News 

January 9, 2025

  • Caucus increased $1,160,000
  • Wage increase approx 2.2% per year
  • Constituency office increase $6,000 X 89 = $534,000 more per year
  • Transition costs 1 month's salary for each year worked up to 6 months' salary, 6 X $120,936 (2024 wage) = $725,616/MLA
  • Total: $1,694,000 immediately when passed

UCP committee members vote to increase Alberta MLA pay, government caucus funding 

Money since Dec. 2024

UCP Caucus - $1,160,000

Office expenses  - $534,000 more per year

Severance for 3 AHS CEO’s - $2,943,434

Total: $4,637,434.00

Advertising

Counter Signal $116,800/year

Western Standard - https://www.abconservatives.ca/announcement/alberta-government-pays-for-100-monthly-subscriptions-to-western-standard/ 

True North - now called JUNO, interviews with Smith, June 26, 2025

https://www.junonews.com/p/exclusive-premier-smith-ottawa-created 

Updates July 4, 2025

  1. Since January 2025, the UCP has spent 311 days out of Canada and has taken 69 trips. This includes multiple trips to the US and Smith’s trip to Japan.
  2. The Executive Ministry increased its budget by another $4.6 million in February 2025
  3. Gave themselves a housing allowance increase to $2,200/month.  (More than AISH recipients make, and just for housing! They also have expense accounts.) Feb 2025
  4. Splitting AHS into four areas: Mental Health and Addiction, Primary Care, Assisted Living, and Acute Care, came online in April 2025. Alberta Health is directly under the Provincial Government; there is no arm’s length in the decisions being made. From one minister to four ministers, one system of management to four different management models, and local hospital-based leadership. (What could go wrong?)
    https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/about/Page11884.aspx https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-hospital-based-leadership-eliminate-ahs-zones 
  5. Transferring ownership of hospitals to Alberta Infrastructure (Is this one of many steps in privatizing healthcare?) https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/alberta-transferring-ownership-of-health-care-properties-april-1/ 
  6. Rolled in the Alberta Government Publicity Department to the Executive Branch under the direct control of Premier Smith - the Communications Wing. https://globalnews.ca/news/11248084/alberta-government-public-relations/ 
  7. Created the Alberta Next Panel for $2 million. June 2025 (this was to get feedback from Albertans about creating a Provincial Police force, among other things, and then went ahead and created a Provincial Police force.)

  1. Funding and establishing an Alberta Police Force in July 2025. Sat Parhar, former Calgary Deputy Police Chief, was named the inaugural police Chief for IAPS. $20 million. (Alberta’s Police Service)
  1. $15 billion to settle coal mining in the Rockies. 2 companies settled in July 2025, and another 2 in November.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-coal-montem-atrum-evolve-lawsuits-1.7576254 

Total $15,026,600,000.

That's way more than the $8,300,000,000 surplus.

This is without the cost of management of 4 health care areas, surgeries at private clinics,  funding the building of charter and private schools, and the expenses of the trips the UCP has taken.

Updated Total August 31, 2025 (we just updated the health care portion for transitioning over to 4 silos so far)

$75,271,024,685.53 + 9,850,000,000 (health care Aug 2025)= $85,121,024,685.53 - It is over $85 billion with a “b”.  

Do you really trust them with your CPP?

September 2025 - $711 million awarded from tobacco company settlement - put in Heritage Trust Fund. It's not used for people.

85,121,024,685.53 + 711,000,000= 85,832,024,685.53 ….that's how much $$$ the UCP has squandered or put away so they are not using it for Albertans.

*****

Rug $260,000 and $300,000 for new dishes.