The health minister and Opposition leader are at odds over whether the Premier’s Office had anything to do with bringing Canadian Health Labs to this province.

That company was the subject of a Globe and Mail article a few weeks ago that revealed government spent in excess of $35-million on travel nurses over a five-month period.

PC Leader Tony Wakeham on Tuesday provided documents highlighting when Canadian Health Labs initially reached out to the Premier’s Office, and various communications between that company and political staffers.

Wakeham says the picture of how the contract came to be is becoming clearer.

“It wasn’t just the fact that the health authorities did it on their own,” he said.

“They got their mandate from the government, from the Premier’s Office, from the Minister of Health’s office, and their staff were directly involved, the executives of the department were directly involved in those contracts and knew what was in them.”

Health Minister Tom Osborne disputes those claims.

“My understanding is there was no direction attached to them forwarding the email on,” he said. “But when someone says they can help, the option is either not forward the email — and someone would say, you had a solution but you didn’t forward it — or you forward the email.

“The decision to hire that particular agency was made at another level, certainly not the Premier’s Office.”