Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange filed her statement of defence in an Edmonton court Thursday, saying the former chief executive officer of the provincial health authority was fired because “she couldn’t do her job despite having been given many opportunities to do so.”

The 23-page statement of defence was filed in the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta on behalf of Alberta Health Services and LaGrange, who are both named in a wrongful dismissal suit filed last month by former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos.

Mentzelopoulos alleges that government officials, including Premier Danielle Smith’s former chief of staff, interfered in procurement and contracting practices at AHS on behalf of private companies. She alleges she was fired because she was conducting an internal investigation into these practices and was set to present what she had learned to the Auditor-General.

In her counterstatement, LaGrange says Mentzelopoulos was terminated on Jan. 8 because she “had become so infatuated with her investigation and various suspicions, that she failed to do her job” to advance the government’s plan to divide AHS into four separate organizations.

“The contractual termination pay she bargained for – $583,443 – was not enough, so she has presented a dramatic tale and false narrative of political persecution presumably to try and pressure AHS to offer more than she is contractually entitled to and deflect attention away from her own inadequate performance while on the job,” the government alleges.

Health procurement questions have dogged the government for weeks, even since The Globe and Mail first reported Mentzelopoulos’s allegations on Feb. 5. The RCMP, the Auditor-General and a former judge, tapped by the government, are now investigating the matter. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Mentzelopoulos, is seeking $1.7-million in damages for breach of contract. The province is asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed and for the plaintiff to pay costs.

Earlier in the day Thursday, Mentzelopoulos made her first public statement since the allegations came to light, saying the Premier and the Health Minister are trying to “deflect from the truth” by attacking her character.

“I am worried there’s a strategy to try to bring me to my knees financially, so I hope we can skip oral questions and proceed directly to trial,” she said.

She has alleged conflicts of interest in Alberta’s 2022 $70-million deal for children’s pain relievers from Turkey, in addition to government pressure in negotiations with private surgical facilities.

The Globe previously reported that LaGrange issued a directive last October that stripped AHS of its power to negotiate contracts for chartered surgical facilities (CSFs), which perform operations paid for by the government as part of the public health care system.

The province argues that there have been a series of directives issued by the minister as part of its restructuring strategy.

“None of the directives were issues ‘against’ the Plaintiff,” according to the statement of defence. It said the October directive was to ensure CSFs “were strategically and operationally aligned with the objectives of the Health System Refocus without any disruption to continuity of care, clinical operations, or the patient experience.”

Justice Minister Mickey Amery, in a statement, said there would be no further comments from the government and it would “resolutely defend against the unproven allegations raised in this matter.”

Dan Scott, who represents Mentzelopoulos, said in a statement that his client intends to file a formal reply to the statement of defence and “will be very comfortable proceeding to trial on an expedited basis – should the Province have the courage to do so.”

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.