Alberta Liberal Party Leader Dr. Raj Sherman says he knows exactly what the provincial government is going to do about its promised independent health inquiry.

“They’re going to hold Dr. John Cowell’s report until March, and then they’ll probably cave in and call the inquiry. Then they’re probably going to overestimate revenues and say we’ll have a balanced budget. And then they’re going to call an election.”

Cowell is the CEO of the Alberta Health Quality Council (AHQC), currently responsible for investigating allegations of doctor intimidation by politicians, access to emergency care and the state of patients awaiting cancer surgery. Sherman’s predictions are especially pertinent in light of the AHQC’s second interim report, which was released on October 27. While the AHQC says it found no evidence of people dying while awaiting cancer treatment, it did confirm ER wait times are dangerously long, and that physicians “have described disturbing life- and career-changing outcomes that they attribute to their advocacy efforts.”

Sherman was a junior health minister with the Progressive Conservatives until he came forward with doctor intimidation accusations in 2010. He maintains the AHQC is not powerful enough to uncover the truth, and demands a public judicial inquiry instead. Premier Alison Redford came under fire last week for backtracking on a leadership campaign promise to hold a full judicial inquiry. She has suggested an inquiry may not happen if the AHQC investigation proves sufficient.

“I’m so disappointed right now in Alison,” says Sherman.