Image | Rino Volpé

Caption: Rino Volpé says he was fired as president and CEO of Vitalité. (Radio-Canada)

Load Image

Rino Volpé, president and CEO of the Vitalité Health Network, says Liberal Health Minister Victor Boudreau has fired him.

The government's press release gives no reason for Volpe's departure, only that it's effective immediately.

And Boudreau was not available for an interview, according to his office.

But Volpe himself told Radio-Canada that he was fired by Boudreau Friday morning.

Volpe was appointed CEO of the health authority in 2013. He had been working for the Health Department designing a new strategic plan when then health minister Ted Flemming said that made him the right person to run Vitalité.

"If we're going to fix things, the key here is execution. What better people to execute than the architects of the plan?" said Flemming at the time.

But in Volpe's dismissal letter, obtained by Radio-Canada, Boudreau accuses the CEO of refusing to work cooperatively with the government, and with partners and stakeholders in the health-care system.

Vitalite is administered in French and runs health services in Moncton and in eastern and northern New Brunswick.

The province has appointed a retired civil servant as interim CEO until a recruitment firm can find a permanent replacement.