Alberta Health Services (AHS) tried to rehire the province’s former chief medical health officer Deena Hinshaw just months after Premier Danielle Smith showed her the door.
Hinshaw, who oversaw the province’s lockdowns and vaccine mandates, was removed from the top job just days after Smith was sworn in as Premier in November — after spending the summer campaigning against such restrictions.
Screenshots of a job announcement circulating online on June 1, just days after the UCP won a second majority government, revealed that Hinshaw was given a job with the Indigenous Wellness Core (IWC), an AHS Indigenous health care program.
The Counter Signal was the first to report that Hinshaw was back. But the outlet was forced to retract its story when AHS issued a statement saying, “Dr. Hinshaw is not employed by AHS.”
Now, according to a CBC report published on Thursday, Hinshaw was indeed hired for a part-time role as the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Lead with the IWC.
According to sources who spoke to CBC, Hinsaw’s offer was signed in May, but the announcement was delayed until after the provincial election.
“Whether the decision to revoke Hinshaw’s job offer came before or after that leak is unclear,” CBC reports.
The legacy outlet also said criticism of Hinshaw’s new job “largely came from right-wing quarters.”
Sources who spoke to True North said AHS proceeded with hiring Hinshaw, against the wishes of the Premier’s Office, because it felt confident the Alberta NDP would win the May 29th provincial election.
Hinshaw is massively unpopular with Albertans following her pandemic reign. That dissatisfaction grew in August, when Albertans learned she received $227,911 Covid bonus in addition to her $363,634 salary. That marked the largest cash benefit payout of any provincial civil servant.
AHS, the Premier’s Office, and Hinshaw have all remained tight-lipped about the controversy.
“Alberta Health Services is responsible for hiring decisions and the government of Alberta does not comment on AHS personnel decisions,” the Premier’s press secretary Sam Blackett told CBC.
The Counter Signal editor in chief Keean Bexte told True North that AHS “hid the truth” to control the story and then used CBC as the “correction outlet.”
