Following the release of an article by the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) that claimed Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown provided “extensive behind the scenes help” to a healthcare centre that was “publicly funded, privately delivered,” Brown has maintained that he was acting in Airdrie’s best interest.
Currently, Airdrie only has one 24-urgent care centre serving 90,000 residents. While the provincial government promised $8.5 million in upgrades to the existing Airdrie Urgent Care Centre in 2023, the facility still has a limited number of beds and equipment available.
When asked about some of the article’s claims, such as the claim that Brown refused an interview with Discover Airdrie discussing the pause on the existing urgent care renovations, Brown said he had “no idea” what the article was referring to and urged the IJF to reveal where in his emails that information was pulled.
Within the next paragraph, the IJF claims that Brown forwarded the Discover Airdrie email to One Health physician, Dr. Julian Kyne, as well as One Health consultant Doug Smith to discuss a communications strategy that stayed “vague.”
Brown outright disputed this claim, saying that he has been a vocal supporter of the initiative and was unsure which “narrative” the article was referring to.
Brown then directly addressed one claim that made about his decision to remove the City of Airdrie logo from a presentation about the healthcare project to city council. He explained that many of the activities he endorses as mayor, including his leadership prayer breakfast, do not feature the city logo either.
Earlier in the week, Brown took to Facebook Live to address the article directly to constituents. Brown outlined that the reporter involved in investigating the story, Brett McKay, was an "outsider" who combined the 257 pages of email correspondence provided by Brown to create the article.
The article also claimed that Brown did not directly respond to questions about why he “took steps to hide or obscure his involvement with One Health and Qualico, when city councillors were informed about the project, or why he contacted Anderson about the proposal before meeting with the health minister.”
Brown addressed his meeting with “then-executive director of the premier’s office and former Airdrie MLA,” Rob Anderson, within the livestream as well, claiming that Anderson was a part of the community for seven years.
“If you don't think I'm going to call him to ask for his advice on how to best approach a minister, what's the best way to provide documents to administer?” Brown asked, rhetorically, during his livestream. “Absolutely, I'm going to do that. Every single other mayor that I've ever met [would].”
Further, Brown said that the way the questions were presented by the story's writer, McKay, signalled that he was challenging Brown's integrity.
"That really upset me," Brown said during his livestream. "So, I provided a statement rather than answering these questions based on pieces of an email."
One part of the article that Brown had significant qualms with was a paragraph that named a city employee as being involved in sharing a draft ministerial briefing note. During his livestream, he said that City staff “bleed blue” for the City of Airdrie.
The article acquired the emails through a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) request. Any citizen can request information through a FOIP request, including the correspondence between public officials. Any information that isn’t considered privileged can be shared.
Currently, the exact emails that the claims come from have not been released by the IJF. The Airdrie City View also has not seen the emails referred to by McKay's article, and cannot verify or deny the claims made within the IJF article.
Since the article has come out, Brown has been vocal about questioning the ethics of the material chosen to present the “strung together” narrative within the article.
“I’m asking questions about somebody who created something from nothing, because we didn’t have an interview, pulled 257 emails apart, and then all of the sudden [created] an article.”
Brown also outlined that many similarly sized municipalities, like Grande Prairie, have had a hospital for decades. Brown said that Airdrie has been waiting to hear if they are next for a hospital for 20 years.
Brown doesn’t think “in the slightest” that the article, which claimed that the healthcare centre was being used by the province to “test new models of healthcare delivery,” instead of fixing patient outcomes, will have any negative impact on Airdrie’s future healthcare options. Airdrie remains underserved in its health care, said Brown, and its mayor and council need to continue to champion this vital need to the province.
“It’s not fair to say anymore: ‘Citizens of Airdrie, if you need this, you need to go to Calgary,’” he said. “As we continue to grow, I’m going to keep advocating on behalf of this city, because we need more support. Full stop.”
