When Alberta’s United Conservative government contracted out community medical lab testing to a private company in December 2022, it said it would save tens of millions of dollars.

Two weeks before that contract with DynaLife Medical Labs was set to take effect, the company told the province it needed additional funding.

Less than three months later, DynaLife’s owners said the company was insolvent and needed an additional $70 million. They soon asked the province to buy DynaLife, which it ultimately did at a cost of almost $100 million.

These revelations come from documents obtained by CBC News through freedom of information requests, including Alberta Health emails and briefing notes prepared for Premier Danielle Smith and health ministers Jason Copping and Adriana LaGrange.