Alberta lost four of its top public health doctors in June after their contracts were not renewed. At the time, Health Minster Ron Liepert implied this was due to high salary demands the government was unable to meet.

However, critics are now calling this explanation into question after newly released documents show they were earning amounts comparable to, or less than their counterparts in other provinces.

The doctors’ salaries were released to the Edmonton Journal through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Alberta’s former top doctor, Dr. Karen Grimsrud, earned $219,228 as the acting chief medical officer of health in 2007. The amount is $60,000 less than what Ontario and Manitoba’s top public health doctors earned. Alberta family doctors earn an average income of $210,816.

Due to contractual clauses, the doctors have been unable to discuss their version of events leading up to their departure.

According to Dave Taylor, the Liberal health critic, people are often prohibited from speaking about human resources issues in detail. However, he notes doctors should be able to openly advocate for their patients. Regardless of who speaks, Taylor says Liepert, “has duty to tell the people of Alberta about what’s really going on.”

In June, Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert told CBC the reason for not renewing the doctors’ contracts was because “there is a limit as to what the government of Alberta can pay for certain positions.”

On Tuesday, July 29, Liepert denied having said the doctors’ salaries were too high. “I said these are contracts and they’re negotiated contracts and what I said at the time was, going forward, there were demands that we didn't feel we could agree to,” he told reporters outside the legislature.

“As far as I can tell, Ron Liepert never specifically said that it had to do with salaries and specifically how much they were making or how much they were asking for,” says Dave Taylor, the Liberal health critic. “But he certainly did at the time make a comment that certainly implied that that’s what it was all about and now he’s back peddling.”

In a written statement, NDP leader Brian Mason accused the health minister of misleading the public. “Ron Liepert hasn’t told Albertans the truth,” Mason stated. “It’s clear now that this whole debacle has nothing to do with money. We’ve had enough of his cloak-and-dagger game; Liepert must explain himself and these doctors must be allowed to say why they left.” (TH)