Peter Guthrie resigns from UCP cabinet over Dodgy Contracts Scandal
Echoes of Donna Kennedy-Glans and Len Webber resignations from 11 years ago
I usually try to avoid writing too much about breaking news and I typically don’t publish more than one article per day, but I made an exception after today’s news that Minister of Infrastructure Peter Guthrie had resigned from United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith’s cabinet.
“I’m not going to stand by and see potential corruption exist within government and be a part of that,” Guthrie was quoted as saying to the Globe & Mail in reference to the ongoing scandal and alleged cover-up related to government contracts with private surgical companies. “I felt profound disappointment in their ability to be able to ignore these clear conflicts,” he said.
Guthrie made the news last week when his proposal to remove Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange from her cabinet post was leaked to the media. It is unclear who leaked Guthrie’s cabinet proposal and information about his ministry purchasing land from a company connected to a person at the centre of the allegations, but it is clear that Guthrie has drawn the ire of powerful political players inside the UCP government.
In a letter published on his social media channels this morning, Guthrie announced that he was resigning after spending months voicing “concerns about the government’s procurement practices across all departments,” suggesting that the scandal is not limited to the Department of Health.
In his resignation letter, Guthrie complained that his cabinet colleagues did not support the creation of a Financial Oversight Committee that would review and advise on major government contracts and help the government avoid the kind of procurement scandal it currently finds itself in.
Premier Smith responded to Guthrie’s resignation through a written statement.
“He has obviously expressed concerns regarding the allegations made by the former CEO of Alberta Health Services. As I have said repeatedly, those allegations are serious and are being fully investigated,” Smith said. “We have pledged our government’s full cooperation and support to the Auditor General to expedite his review so we can have answers as soon as possible.”
That wasn’t good enough for the opposition.
“Today’s resignation should have been the Health Minister. And the Premier herself should step aside while her government is investigated for the worst corruption scandal Alberta has ever seen,” NDP opposition leader Christina Gray said at a press conference today. The NDP have branded the scandal as “CorruptCare” and will make it the centrepiece of their criticisms of the government in the spring session of the Legislature, which began today.
There is talk in political circles of other unhappy cabinet ministers now privately distancing themselves from Smith over this issue, but so far Guthrie is the first public crack in UCP cabinet and caucus unity.
Guthrie’s resignation is also notable because the Airdrie-Cochrane MLA endorsed Smith in the UCP leadership race in 2022, saying at the time that “[w]ith Danielle’s experience and mindset, I feel she’ll be a real difference-maker to inspire change in our party.” His endorsement led to him being appointed as a senior cabinet minister in her government, first as Minister of Energy from 2022 to 2023 and then as Minister of Infrastructure since 2023.
The second-term MLA says he plans to remain in the UCP Caucus, where he will be in a position to ask tough and uncomfortable questions of cabinet ministers during daily Question Period, but he might soon be sitting as an Independent MLA if the Premier and his MLA colleagues feel otherwise.
His resignation has echoes of political resignations from a time in Alberta’s not too distant past. It was almost 11 years ago when two Progressive Conservative MLAs - Len Webber and Donna Kennedy-Glans- handed in their resignations after scandals enveloped Premier Alison Redford’s government.
Webber had served as a cabinet minister in Premier Ed Stelmach’s government and Kennedy-Glans briefly served as Associate Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy after being recruited as a PC star candidate in 2012.
But Webber and Kennedy-Glans went a step further than Guthrie and actually left the PC caucus to sit as Independent MLAs. Their full resignations from the caucus and the threats that other MLAs would follow were some of the final blows that led to Redford’s decision to resign as Premier two months later.
As leader of the Wildrose Party opposition at the time, Danielle Smith was quick to chime in on the dissension in the PC ranks, and Kennedy-Glans’ resignation in particular.
“Earlier this week, a cabinet minister resigned her post and left the government caucus. When asked to explain why, she said this: ‘I am increasingly convinced that elements of this 43-year old government are simply unable to make the changes needed to achieve that dream of a better Alberta,” Smith told an audience of 1,000 guests at a Wildrose Party fundraising dinner held days after Kennedy-Glans’ resignation in March 2014.
“Many in this room here tonight have already come to this conclusion. Many more are stopping to consider that possibly the problems cannot be fixed from within, or with a change of leadership,” Smith said.
It feels unlikely that Smith believes the comments she made about the scandal-ridden PC government in 2014 apply to her UCP government today.
Resigning and breaking from your party can be a big political risk for an MLA or cabinet minister who wants to continue a life in politics. It could spell the end of a political career, but it also might not. In the case of Kennedy-Glans and Webber, both politicians walked away with their reputations in tact. Kennedy-Glans now writes regular political columns for Postmedia and Webber is now serving his third-term as the Conservative MP for Calgary Confederation.
I’ve shared this quote from Ernest Hemingway before, but its becoming more true by the day: “How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
As we can see before our very eyes, the same can be said of political scandals.
CorruptCare is what I will be calling the UCP notions of how Alberta's healthcare system should work.