Some experts are calling Alberta Health Service administrator Dr. John Cowell’s $1,400 travel expense “problematic,” saying it erodes public trust in the government and AHS executives.
According to public documents, Cowell expensed a $1,404 car ride between Calgary and Edmonton to conduct meetings and to attend the throne speech last November.
An AHS spokesperson sent QR Calgary the following statement:
“Dr. Cowell had a day of travel between Calgary and Edmonton to conduct meetings and to attend the throne speech, and required the use of a vehicle so that he could work and take calls of a sensitive nature while on the road, and also avoid the expense of an overnight stay.
“The cost of the travel is equivalent or better than airfare, hotel, parking and taxi use.
“Dr. Cowell’s expenses fall within the government of Alberta’s expense policy, which allows reimbursement for the expense of using a third-party vehicle, such as a town car or taxi.”
Cowell did not respond to QR Calgary’s requests for comment.
Health Minister Jason Copping was asked about the trip at an unrelated press conference in Calgary on Friday.
“I fully appreciate that it looks costly,” said Copping.
“But again, we hired Dr. Cowell to come in, drive changes faster to our health-care system through AHS.”
“This is all within government policy to hire a car so he can actually do work in the car, take calls using confidential documents, do a bunch of meetings in Edmonton — including with me — and then return back the same day.”
Copping echoed the position of AHS, saying Cowell was able to work during the drive and that the cost of travel was comparable to that of flights and hotels.
Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor for the University of Calgary’s faculty of law and Cummings School of medicine, called the expense “problematic.”
Hardcastle said Cowell and AHS should have been more aware of the bad optics around such a large expense, especially when Alberta’s health-care system is struggling financially.
She said Albertans would want him to use taxpayers’ money as frugally as possible.
In comparison, a round-trip flight from Calgary to Edmonton is more than $320 on both WestJet and Air Canada. A round-trip bus ride would have been around $200.
“For staff within AHS who aren’t paid at the executive level, or even your average Albertan, the optics of this $1,400 three-hour trip are quite problematic,” Hardcastle told QR Calgary.
“Many people make that trip regularly for work and many people work in places that wouldn’t be an acceptable amount to be reimbursed for that trip.
“I think it’s difficult to reconcile this with messages of trust and accountability and frugality that we would hope to see from someone in a leadership position.”
Hardcastle also said accommodations could have been made so Cowell wouldn’t have to work for the hour in the air.
“The flight is very quick. If you can’t work on sensitive documents for a very short flight, that’s not significantly cutting into your work day,” the associate professor said.
“He surely had things that he could work on for the very short flight that weren’t sensitive in nature.”
Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the optics are especially bad during a cost-of-living crisis.
She said while AHS may think the expense was necessary, the $1,400 car ride will be seen as a luxury to most Albertans.
“This could have an impact on the public perception of the ways in which the government is carefully managing taxpayer dollars at a time when many taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet,” Williams told QR Calgary.
“It looks like the government isn’t careful about taxpayer dollars. It looks like there’s a sense of entitlement or arrogance or detachment and lack of sensitivity to the struggles of ordinary Albertans.”
Williams said the expense may also further the distrust between the public, AHS and the United Conservative government.
Cowell was installed as the sole administrator for AHS last November after Premier Danielle Smith scrapped the provincial health authority’s 12-person governing board.
Smith has been critical of how AHS handled the COVID-19 pandemic and has promised to reorganize the entire governance structure of the health-care body.
“Themes of fiscal responsibility and frugality are pretty central to (Finance Minister) Travis Toews and (Premier) Danielle Smith,” Williams said.
“There’s certainly an impatience with a government that doesn’t follow the rules or principles that it expects Albertans to follow, and that could be problematic for them.
“It could also affect the impression of whether (Cowell) is someone that ought to be trusted with fixing the health-care system.”
QR Calgary reached out to Toews’ office with requests for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. The story will be updated once one is received.
–With files from Global News’ Adam Toy and The Canadian Press
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