Another Building Purchase by Sam Mraiche Raises Questions

In June 2023, senior officials from Alberta’s Mental Health and Addiction Ministry and ROSC Solutions Group, a private addiction treatment company, toured a building near the Royal Alexandra Hospital in downtown Edmonton.

The tour, scheduled for June 26, was to assess whether the building could serve as a provincially funded addiction recovery centre for the Métis Nation of Alberta, to be potentially operated under contract by ROSC Solutions Group, known as RSG.

Four months later, on Oct. 23, 2023, a numbered company belonging to Sam Mraiche bought the building for $3.85 million from Larga Ltd., which had operated a boarding house for medical patients from northern Canada at the site.

Métis Nation financial statements show it is now paying Mraiche $480,000 a year for at least four years to lease the Larga building.

Mraiche is the multimillionaire Edmonton businessman at the centre of a roiling political controversy. Alberta’s auditor general and the RCMP are separately conducting investigations related to allegations of political interference and conflict of interest involving hundreds of millions of dollars of Alberta Health Services procurement contracts. He has vigorously denied any wrongdoing.

Mraiche’s purchase of the Larga building was the first of two real estate transactions connected to the United Conservative Party government in which he used the same numbered company — 2262576 Alberta Ltd.

On May 27, 2024, as first reported by The Tyee, Mraiche bought a commercial industrial building in north-central Edmonton for $1.7 million and sold it three months later to Alberta Infrastructure for $2 million, for a profit of $300,000.

Through statements from his lawyers in Edmonton and Toronto, Mraiche has said both purchases were routine real estate transactions, conducted through brokers.

In relation to the Larga building purchase, Mraiche said there was “no involvement whatsoever of the provincial government or any of its personnel.” Mraiche said he learned of the Larga building’s availability from a June 23, 2023, media story.

Tangled connections

Internal Mental Health and Addiction Ministry documents obtained through freedom of information, land title and corporate searches and previous media reporting reveal a tangled web of connections between the UCP government, RSG, Mraiche and the Métis Nation of Alberta.

During three sitting days of the Alberta legislature last month, the NDP grilled UCP government ministers about this latest development in what they framed as an ongoing scandal.

In a member’s statement to the legislative assembly on Dec. 2, Calgary MLA Janet Eremenko, the NDP’s mental health and addiction critic, made an oblique reference to RSG, pointing out that it had won $70 million in recovery centre-related contracts despite being a new startup company.

Eremenko told the legislature that Marshall Smith, Premier Danielle Smith’s former chief of staff, had become the “much-published and celebrated architect of the Alberta Recovery Model, and in his wake are for-profit companies eager to get their piece of the recovery pie.”

On Dec. 3, NDP house leader Christina Gray asked: “Who got Sam Mraiche to buy this building? Who made the connection? How much are taxpayers on the hook for?”

Premier Danielle Smith, Marshall Smith and several UCP ministers and MLAs accepted free luxury “skybox” tickets to Edmonton Oilers playoff games in the spring of 2024 from Mraiche.

On Dec. 4, Eremenko told the legislature it might have seemed reasonable for ministry officials to tour and assess the Larga building as a potential medical detox centre — if Mraiche had not purchased the building a few months later.

“Given that the premier’s former chief of staff [Marshall Smith] has consistently been found to be in the same places, the same skyboxes, and the same backroom deals as Sam Mraiche, will the minister pretend that Mraiche’s numbered company on the recovery building’s land title is purely a coincidence?”

None of the allegations made by the NDP in the legislature, which are protected by total legal immunity, have been tested in court.

Mental Health and Addiction Minister Rick Wilson and Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange did not respond to an interview request.

Marshall Smith, through his lawyer, rejected the “insinuations and innuendo contained in the [NDP legislature] comments... which are materially and factually false.” Smith’s lawyer did not respond to specific questions related to the statements made by the NDP in the legislature.

A centre to fit the Alberta Recovery Model

Internal ministry documents show the ministry worked closely with RSG as part of a major policy initiative, known as the Alberta Recovery Model, by the UCP government to establish addiction treatment centres, particularly for Métis and Indigenous Peoples.

Emails show Evan Romanow, the ministry’s assistant deputy minister, directly communicated with Carson McPherson, the CEO of RSG, about transitioning the Larga building into a medical detox centre serving the Métis Nation of Alberta.

Eric Engler, the minister’s chief of staff, was also copied on the emails. The Globe and Mail reported that Engler once lived in the same house as Marshall Smith. That house was owned by Sam Mraiche’s sister. Smith told the Globe the landlord was “appropriately compensated” but declined to say how much he paid in rent.

“Thanks for the quick chat today about this building which was sent our way to explore,” Romanow said in a June 22, 2023, email to Lorette Garrick, the CEO of the George Spady Centre in Edmonton, and McPherson, which was also copied to Engler and several others.

The documents don’t indicate who brought the building to the ministry’s attention.

A June 19, 2024, RSG report summarizes its work with the Métis Nation to establish an operational treatment program in the Larga building:

“This project includes significant efforts to transform the Larga site, which had previously been funded for providing recovery-oriented services, but had not yet been fully utilized.

“Our approach to this project has been multifaceted, involving extensive consultations and site evaluations. Key discussions were held in April and May 2024 with Marshall Smith, Eric Engler, Evan Romanow” and two other ministry officials.

“These discussions were pivotal in shaping the strategic direction of the project. We collectively explored how best to utilize the Larga building to meet the community's recovery needs while aligning with the broader goals of the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions.”

A spokesperson for the Métis Nation, known as the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, said they leased the building “to operate [since October 2025] New Beginnings, a pre-treatment centre within the Otipemisiwak Métis Government Recovery Continuum, contributing to the broader Alberta Recovery Model.”

The contracted service provider, RSG, supports program delivery, the spokesperson said, but doesn’t lease space in the building and maintains “an office on-site to facilitate the operational staff and services they provide.”

‘Fair market value’

The Métis Nation’s annual financial reports show it is paying Mraiche’s numbered company $480,000 a year to lease the property from 2025 to 2028, and $280,000 in 2029.

“The lease agreement was entered into at fair market value, with consideration to the desirability of location and given that the building was fit for purpose relevant to the program delivery,” the spokesman said.

RSG CEO Carson McPherson is the former CEO of Cedars Recovery Cobble Hill, a residential addiction treatment centre on Vancouver Island.

Researcher Euan Thomson, on his Drug Data Decoded website, revealed that McPherson is a former associate of Marshall Smith.

Smith is widely recognized as the architect of the UCP government’s controversial approach to recovery treatment, which includes the elimination of safe consumption sites and involuntary treatment of people with acute substance abuse issues.

Thomson, a sharp critic of the Alberta Recovery Model, reported that Smith had worked as the director of corporate development and community relations with Cedars. He also reported that McPherson and Smith had worked together at the BC Centre on Substance Use.

McPherson did not respond to interview requests.

On May 10, 2024, as reported by The Breakdown, Mraiche attended an NHL playoff game in Vancouver against the Edmonton Oilers. A photo of the luxury suite shows Mraiche sitting between Aaron Barner, senior executive officer for the Métis Nation of Alberta, and Andrea Sandmaier, its president.

Three years earlier on March 15, 2021, Mraiche and Barner had incorporated Métis Strategic Services Corp.

On Oct. 14, 2021, MHCare Facilities Group was incorporated with Mraiche, Barner and another man as directors. Barner used a Métis Nation email in the registration. The corporation was dissolved on Feb. 22, 2023.

The paperwork for both incorporations was filed from the offices of Jaberson & Associates in Edmonton, the firm of Sam Jaber.

Jaber was also at the May 10, 2024, Oilers-Canucks game along with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and B.C. Premier David Eby and his family. Smith had appointed Jaber to the board of Invest Alberta in November 2023.

Fired AHS CEO’s allegations

Former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos is suing the UCP government for wrongful dismissal. She alleges she was fired for ordering a forensic audit of various contracts with links to government officials.

In a supplementary document filed in March, Mentzelopoulos recounts a Jan. 2, 2025, conversation with Mental Health and Addiction Deputy Minister Evan Romanow.

The document states that Romanow told her that Dan Williams, the previous minister of mental health and addiction, “was ‘very concerned’ about the AHS internal investigations and the forensic audit.”

Mentzelopoulos further claimed that Romanow told her Williams was also concerned that “the investigation could lead to potential connections between various government officials and Sam Mraiche and MHCare Medical around AHS procurement issues.”

Romanow, in a public statement, said the call’s purpose was to “confirm the status of the AHS investigation.”

“It appears Ms. Mentzelopoulos has taken portions of that conversation entirely out of context, as though I was in agreement with or confirming portions of these concerns and allegations,” Romanow said in his statement.

“This is entirely inappropriate, untrue, and I find her willingness to distort my conversation with her to be hurtful and disheartening given our histories as trusted colleagues.”

None of the allegations contained in Mentzelopoulos’s lawsuit, nor any of the legal responses by the government, including by Romanow, have been proven in court.

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