AHS Scandal: How Tight Is Dale McFee with Sam Mraiche?

Dale McFee, the soon-to-be-former chief of the Edmonton Police Service, becomes Alberta’s top civil servant — the deputy minister of executive council and head of the Alberta Public Service — on Feb. 24.

The timing is fraught.

The United Conservative Party and Premier Danielle Smith are being flogged daily by new revelations in a multi-tentacled scandal. And McFee has a well-documented association with a prominent millionaire businessman who is a central figure in the scandal.

The Edmonton Police Service and Edmonton Police Commission have confirmed to The Tyee that McFee attended an Oilers playoff game against the Florida Panthers in June.

But they have refused to confirm or deny if it was as a guest of Sam Mraiche, the founder of MHCare Medical, whose business dealings with the UCP government have generated headlines in Alberta for months.

A criminologist said McFee may have breached his police service’s own ethics policy about accepting gifts and the police commission was derelict in not conducting an investigation.

“The chief may well be entirely cleared of wrongdoing in the end, but a police oversight agency cannot summarily dismiss such potential breach of ethics policy without any investigation,” said University of Alberta criminologist Temitope Oriola.

In the so-called “Tylenot” scandal, Mraiche is reported to have played a role in facilitating the government’s importation of children’s pain medication from Turkey in response to a shortage. Critics assailed the controversial deal for wasting tens of millions of dollars.

The Globe and Mail first reported in mid-July that several UCP cabinet ministers and government officials attended several NHL playoff games as Mraiche’s guests.

Last week, the Globe reported that former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos had been fired just two days before she was to meet with the province’s auditor general to discuss an internal investigation she had conducted into procurement practices at AHS.

The Globe report included the allegation that Mraiche’s medical supply company, MHCare Medical, received more than $600 million in government contracts.

Mraiche has denied any wrongdoing, as has Danielle Smith. The auditor general is now conducting a review.

Unanswered questions about playoff tickets

In October, a source told this reporter that McFee had been seen in a luxury suite on June 13, the third game of the final against the Florida Panthers.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that at one point Smith arrived at the same suite where McFee was across the room. But the source didn’t know if the two talked or even saw each other.

Neither Smith nor Mraiche responded to requests for comment back in October. And again, back in October, Edmonton police communications staff failed for a week to acknowledge emails from me about McFee’s attendance at the game.

On a Friday afternoon, an Edmonton Police Service communications person finally provided a cryptic response that didn’t directly address the questions of whether McFee watched the game from Mraiche’s suite or if he had paid for his ticket.

“The Chief was not at the game on police business, nor was he a guest of any EPS business associate,” EPS communications supervisor Cheryl Sheppard said in an email.

About 90 minutes after Sheppard responded on that Friday, the police commission’s acting executive director, Bonnie Riddell, provided an emailed statement that also didn’t directly confirm any details.

“In response to your inquiry, the commission does not have any information to suggest improper conduct or breach of policy,” Riddell wrote.

Earlier this week, Patricia Misutka, the EPS executive director of corporate communications, again refused to say if McFee had attended the game as Mraiche’s guest.

“It is not my role, nor the role of anyone at EPS, to speak to the current chief's future job responsibilities or what will or won't be relevant to his transition into a new role,” Misutka said in an email.

”You can direct any and all inquiries to the Government of Alberta.”

‘Tortured bureaucratese’

Temitope Oriola, the University of Alberta criminologist, has been a sharp critic of the EPS and the police commission. He said their responses are “indicative of professional obfuscation and tortured bureaucratese.”

“NHL playoff tickets are not cheap, especially when you are in the VIP section,” Oriola said.

“Any objective observer would consider that the organization's gifting of a pricey hockey game ticket to Chief McFee raises ethical concerns.”

The Tyee obtained an internal copy of the EPS policy on accepting gifts and asked Oriola to review it in the context of the statements provided by the EPS and commission.

The policy states that “EPS members must not solicit or accept, either directly or indirectly, gifts, gratuities, discounts or benefits either in cash or in-kind during the performance of their duties while employed by the EPS.”

It also states that in-kind gifts valued at under $100 can be accepted as long as they are not tax deductible.

“Any evidence of accepting a gift worth more than $100 by a serving member of the EPS must be treated as a potential ethics violation,” Oriola said.

MHCare Medical’s police-related sponsorships

It is not known exactly how much a seat would cost in Mraiche’s luxury suite at Rogers Place during that final playoff series with Florida.

The Tyee obtained a bill for a Scotiabank suite from the final series with Florida. The suite has 12 seats with two parking passes and costs $44,000. Another 12 additional standing-room tickets could be purchased for $18,000. If all 24 seats were occupied, that works out to $2,583 a ticket.

Oriola said he wasn’t surprised by the response of the police commission, which he has previously accused of failing to hold the police accountable while instead acting as cheerleaders for the service.

“A potential breach of ethics policy requires swift investigation: careful consideration of all the facts, including written or oral submission from Chief McFee and MHCare Medical as well as the circumstances of the gift and any potential conflicts of interest or ‘perceived impact on the reputation’ and future actions of the EPS,” Oriola said in an email.

Oriola said the explanation offered by the EPS that McFee was not at the game on police business “is patently absurd and suggesting that he was not ‘a guest of any EPS business associate’ is a figment of the imagination of the spokesperson.”

“Would McFee have been given the ticket if he were not police chief?” he said.

In fact, MHCare Medical is a major sponsor of the Edmonton Police Foundation, of which McFee is an ex officio member.

Earlier this year, MHCare was one of the sponsors of a foundation fundraiser called Bustin’ for Badges that involved shooting targets with shotguns. In an MHCare promotional video posted to YouTube, EPS Deputy Chief Devin Laforce praises the event for the opportunities it provides to network with other companies and with the police.

MHCare also was a major sponsor of the Safety of Our Cities conference in Edmonton in September 2023, for which the Edmonton police, the police foundation and McFee were key supporters.

A June 13, 2023, news release announcing MHCare as a “presenting sponsor” quotes both Sam Mraiche and McFee.

“Chief Dale McFee thanks MHCare Medical for its sponsorship,” the release states, adding later that the conference was about the future of policing and McFee said, “We are so pleased to be able to work with our sponsors to bring this discussion forward.”

McFee appears several times in an MHCare promotional video about the conference, including one segment in which he talks about the opportunities for networking.

“MHCare Medical is not a random organization in Alberta,” Oriola said, adding that its major role in the Safety of Our Cities conference “suggests a prior relationship between the EPS and MHCare Medical.”

This is not the first time McFee has accepted a free ticket.

In 2021, the Progress Report reported McFee attended a UCP fundraiser in August 2020 as the guest of his friend Vince Morelli, the president of SafeTracks GPS Canada, a company that sells GPS ankle monitors, including to law enforcement agencies in Alberta.

Morelli initially told the Progress Report that McFee attended as his guest but later told PressProgress that McFee had his own tickets. The EPS confirmed McFee and his wife attended the event as guests but did not contribute financially to the fundraiser.

If you have any information for this story, or information for another story, please contact Charles Rusnell in confidence via email.