Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government signed a $70-million deal to import children’s pain relief medication from Turkey in 2022 despite expert advice that the province ask Ottawa to take the lead to avoid the risk of a “significant net loss of funds,” according to briefing documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Briefing notes prepared by Alberta Health officials in November, 2022, for then-health minister Jason Copping and Ms. Smith outlined three options to import five million bottles of pediatric ibuprofen and acetaminophen from Atabay Pharmaceuticals amid a North American shortage for children’s pain relievers. The documents detailed the downsides of each path.

The government chose the riskiest option: to sign a deal to import medicine before receiving regulatory clearance from Health Canada, despite warnings that the province could be left on the hook for a product that would no longer be needed or would not be approved.

It explained at the time that Alberta signed a contract for five million bottles – roughly eight times the province’s annual demand, according to figures presented in the briefing documents – because it was the minimum purchase order set by the supplier.

Alberta spent $70-million, plus shipping, to procure the drugs but only ever received 1.5 million bottles of medicine. The province has now hatched a plan to send the unwanted Turkish supply to Ukraine.

Edmonton-based MHCare Medical facilitated the import deal. The company has been holding $49.2-million of the province’s medication payments for “well over a year,” according to a letter Alberta Health Services, the provincial health authority, sent the company last December.

The original deal is now a key part of allegations – contained in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by former AHS chief executive Athana Mentzelopoulos – of improper contracting and procurement practices at AHS and Alberta Health, which is the government ministry. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

The RCMP, Alberta’s Auditor-General and a former judge on behalf of the government are investigating facets of Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s allegations.

The Premier and health minister said, when announcing the deal in December, 2022, that the government wanted to help families by alleviating the shortage of cold and flu medication on pharmacy shelves and in hospitals. The politicians were provided with three options to achieve that.

Alberta Health officials, in a Nov. 23 note to Mr. Copping, recommended the most financially conservative choice: that Alberta ask Health Canada to bring in the drugs, which the federal agency could then distribute across the country. By opting for this plan, Alberta could dodge the risk of paying for – and being stuck with – an unnecessary amount of medication.

“Based on public data identifying the number of pediatric patients in the province, 5M bottles would be an excessive amount of supply for the market, and product will likely expire before utilized,” the document warned. “This could result in a significant net loss of funds.”

A document advising the Premier, dated Nov. 25, favoured a second option: that Alberta pursue the import deal alone, but only after obtaining the necessary approvals from Health Canada. The briefing note warned that approvals might not come until demand tapered and regular supply increased. Mr. Copping is listed as the contact at the bottom of the document advising the Premier.

Both of these options were designed to mitigate Alberta’s financial risk while still pursuing a deal to fulfill Ms. Smith’s desire to solve the medication shortage.

The government, however, chose the third path contained in both briefing memos. Alberta signed a deal to buy five million bottles of medicine prior to receiving Health Canada’s approval.

The briefing notes warned that if Alberta selected this option it could end up with too much medicine, too late, or it could end up with little to no medicine despite paying upfront.

“There is a risk that should [Health Canada] not approve the shipment for any reason, these funds will be forgone,” the document addressed to the Premier warned about the required down payment.

Mr. Copping, on Dec. 1, 2022, signed a directive ordering AHS to “take all necessary steps” to procure children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen with all funding provided by the government.

Days later, on Dec. 6, Ms. Smith and Mr. Copping announced the deal to import children’s medicine. It was one of Ms. Smith’s first major announcements after becoming Premier thanks to her victory in the United Conservative Party’s leadership race two months prior.

The Premier said she was confident the federal approval process would move quickly. Alberta planned to recoup some of the costs by selling the medicine to pharmacies, albeit at a subsidized price. It also hoped other provinces would purchase some of the bottles.

However, the stock did not arrive until the shortage had eased. In May, 2023, health officials deemed the acetaminophen a risk to neonatal patients when administered through feeding tubes and by July, 2023, hospitals returned to using their standard supply.

Alberta distributed just 15,600 bottles of the drugs to hospitals and pharmacies by the end of that year, according to a public accounts summary dated Jan. 30, 2024, which The Globe obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Mr. Copping, who lost his seat in the 2023 election, did not respond to a request for comment.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, in a statement Monday, said the Turkish drugs were purchased with the “best of intentions.”

“Alberta’s government acted out of compassion and concern at a time when children’s medication could not be found on the shelves,” Ms. LaGrange said.

Gregory Bentz, a lawyer for MHCare and its owner Sam Mraiche, said his client was not involved in discussions that led to a decision on the medications.

“Our only involvement would have been to facilitate the order ultimately placed by AHS,” he said in a statement.