Alberta Surgical Group – ASG – Sam Mraiche

D’Arcy Durand and Leslie Scheelar

Contracts with the Alberta Surgical Group (ASG) are under scrutiny, with calls for a probe due to allegations of political interference, inflated costs, and conflicts of interest. It stems from former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos’s internal probe into expensive contracts for procedures like hip/knee/shoulder surgeries, leading to her dismissal. Here. The ‘Corrupt Care’ scandal was born in Alberta because of Alberta Surgical Group – ASG.

“Throughout 2024 Mentzelopoulos had been repeatedly subject to interference and pressure from various Government of Alberta officials – including the Premier’s then Chief of Staff, Marshall Smith – to sign off on commitments for the new CSFs, and approve a contract extension for ASG, despite significant concerns within AHS around the true ownership and potential costs of the CSFs, and concerns over the significantly increased costs of the ASG contract when compared to other private contractors and also compared to internal AHS costing estimates. During 2024, Mentzelopoulos also learned that ASG was being promoted by former MLA Doug Horner, and that ASG had somehow been awarded a 2-year CSF contract despite having been uncompetitive in the initial RFP process for CSF contracts. ”

Reports show ASG procedures cost significantly more than public hospitals for similar surgeries, with overall outsourced costs rising sharply.

“ Mentzelopoulos undertook a further review of the existing ASG contract and noted significant differences in the ASG contract compared to other AHS procurement contracts. Among other issues, she noted that the ASG rates were higher than other comparable private service providers and that AHS was potentially paying ASG for services that were not being used. ”

The final report of Raymond Wyant is available here. The judge interviewed Les Scheelar – insider, Alberta Surgical Group. “I found no evidence that the appropriate procedures, as required by its policies, had been followed by AHS.”

ASG’s Blayne Iskiw, Jitendra (J.P.) Prasad
The ASG contract has been subject to multiple investigations, including an Auditor General review. Jitendra (J.P.) Prasad, a former senior procurement official for Alberta Health Services (AHS) and later a consultant, was exposed to confidential information regarding the ASG contract while employed by AHS. He represented ASG in negotiations with AHS

Alberta Surgical Group – ASG, precisely like their man Sam Mraiche, is abusing the courts in Alberta with fraud.

Lawyer Rose Carter (rose.carter@dentons.com) lies to protect a scam on Alberta taxpayers, as does her ASG. Claims of fearing imminent danger was used to squlech Nate Pike by conman Sam Mraiche.

Canadians have a right to freedom of expression. Rose Carter and her bosses may not take it away because their criminal scam is getting outted. ASG’s fees were much, much higher than the internal costs for public hospital surgeries.

Acute Care Alberta announced December 7, 2025 it had extended its contract for another year with Alberta Surgical Group (ASG). The total cost of ASG contracts over four years has reached $121m.

Les Scheelar (ASG – CEO) lscheelar@hotmail.com

Key stakeholders include Leslie Scheelar, D’Arcy Durand, Kenneth Hawkins (khawkins@ualberta.ca), and Sam Mraiche.

D’Arcy Durand, ddurand@ualberta.ca

The new $34m one-year contract runs from Nov. 1, 2025 until Oct. 31, 2026 to provide about 4,000 orthopedic surgeries.

Part of Athana Mentzelopoulos claim says she was concerned that some chartered surgical facilities (CSFs) were charging much more per procedure than others. In some cases the proceedures cost twice as much as those performed in a hospital. A hip replacement for example costs $4,000 in a public hospital. ASG charges $8,300. The cost listed for another private competitor was just over $3,600. Mentzelopoulos says the premier’s then-chief of staff, Marshall Smith, repeatedly put pressure on her to sign deals with the Alberta Surgical Group, despite concerns about their high cost.

A government-ordered report authored by retired Manitoba judge Raymond Wyant found real or perceived conflicts of interest in how AHS awarded contracts for CSFs. Wyant’s report, released in October, says Alberta Health and AHS didn’t follow established policies when awarding the orthopedic surgery contract to ASG. The business had initially been unsuccessful in its bid, but was later offered a temporary contract without AHS requesting new proposals.

AHS issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) on September 7, 2022 for the development of CSFs in Red Deer and Lethbridge. Mraiche registered new legal corporations in October 2023, known as Prairie Surgical Center. Mraiche has a 25% share of the operational entities. Prairie Surgical Center owns the Red Deer and Lethbridge CSFs.

On December 3, Matt Jones minister of hospital and surgical health services announced that the procurement for chartered surgical facilities in Lethbridge and Red Deer had been cancelled.

Former AHS employee Blayne Iskiw holds a 12% stake in the entities associated with Prairie Surgical Center. He was later hired by Alberta Surgical Group (ASG). Jitendra Prasad assumed a key role in negotiating the contracts. Owners of the Red Deer and Lethbridge projects which also included Iskiw and shareholders of ASG, had proposed 15-year contracts worth $430m. In October, 2024, about two weeks before ASG’s contract was set to expire, then-Health Minister Adriana LaGrange ordered AHS in a ministerial directive to extend the deal.

Ms. Mentzelopoulos complied, but her investigation continued. Law firm Borden Ladner Gervais recommended the health agency push the projects’ owners for answers about how and when Iskiw obtained his 12% stake, and whether he or Prasad had received “anything of value” from Mraiche.

Two days before Christmas, the government sent a letter to Ms. Mentzelopoulous ordering her to “cease any due diligence underway” into the Red Deer and Lethbridge projects. On Jan. 8, two days before Ms. Mentzelopoulos was scheduled to brief the province’s Auditor-General about her investigation, she was fired by then-Deputy Minister of Health Andre Tremblay.

Tremblay then assumed full control until he was ousted through a ‘leave of absence’ in December 2025.

Iskiw said that he “has been subjected to unfair innuendo and false allegations”. He works for Sam Mraiche’s MHCare. Judge Wyant determined that Prasad was in a conflict of interest in connection to MHCare’s children’s’ medication deal. Jitendra Prasad retired from the public service. Its said an RCMP investigation began in March, 2025.

Les Scheelar (ASG – CEO), Kaycee Madu, D’arcy Durand (ASG), unknown.

The ASG contract extension raises questions about why Acute Care Alberta would continue to contract with the company while other probes are still ongoing. ASG’s lawyer, Rose Carter, said the health system’s rules prevent the company from publicly commenting on the contract, or anything else. None of the five owners involved with Prairie Surgical Centre, including Sam Mraiche, have anything to say.

rose.carter@dentons.com
lscheelar@hotmail.com, (Dr. Les Scheelar, anesthesiologist)
Paulina.Szczurek@acutecarealberta.ca (Lead, Contracting & Commissioning Oversight at Acute Care Alberta.)

Sam Jaber, accountant for Sam Mraiche created 4 numbered companies. Directors;
Leslie Scheeler, Anesthesiologist
Kenneth Hawkins, Anesthesiologist
Darcy Durand, Orthopedic surgeon

These three, on the numbered company registration documents all listed their address as #300, 14815-119th Avenue NW Edmonton. That is the address of the Carver building of MH Medical Care owned by Sam Mraiche. Two of the three newly registered numbered corporations formed a company called Alberta Surgical Group Ltd., which was created in February of 2020.
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“The operating company for the CZ (Central Zone) was 2555327 Alberta Ltd. Its voting shareholders were numbered companies. The owner of each of these companies, and the percentage of voting shares they held were:
Mr. Sam Mraiche, 25%
Dr. Leslie Scheelar, 25.5%
Dr. Darcy Durand, 25.5%
Mr. Blayne Iskiw, 12%
Dr. Ken Hawkins, 12%
The operating company for the SZ (South Zone) was 2555315 Alberta Ltd., which was owned by the same people with the same percentages. The numbered company that owned the land and would build the facility in which the CSF was to be located was owned 75% by the numbered company that was wholly owned by Mraiche’s numbered company 2262576 Alberta Ltd. The other shareholders in the operating companies owned the balance of the shares ”
Here

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ASG lobbied government using the lobbyist group P3 Capital Partners Incorporated. They lobbied Alberta infrastructure, Alberta Health Services, and the Alberta Health treasury board finance. ASG opened its facility in November, 2022.

Doug Horner, Jeff Johnson, Monica Barclay
Key player in the scam is Doug Horner. Here He’s the Former Minister of Finance of Alberta who runs P3 Capital Partners Incorporated. Doug Horner is either a cousin or uncle to Alberta’s current minister of finance, Nate Horner.