So when he heard about what Alberta Health Services wanted to do with its security operation — centralize 12 former entities into one operations hub based in Edmonton and provide a level playing field when it came to service whether it was an urban hospital or a small northern acute care centre — he realized he’d found the ultimate challenge.

The main thrust of the task facing Weeks and his team? It sounds like a cliché, but essentially it was to do more with less, provide equitable service and save money at the same time, which would ultimately be funnelled back into the health care system. It’s estimated that changes made within protection services to date will save the Alberta health care system about $3.5 million.

“A lot of people like to say what we’re doing is about saving money, but it’s doing more with less and actually enhancing the service model we have so that everyone has fair and equitable service. At the same time, yeah, we are definitely saving money for Albertans and reinvesting in patient care,” he says.

All the change would come at a cost though — investment in new technology, long hours and considerable criticism from labour unions, but Weeks has stood up to his critics and says that, really, the feedback hasn’t been as bad as he thought it would be.

As executive director, protective and parking services, Weeks provides strategic leadership to a team of five senior directors — David Poole, director, provincial parking services, Ed Yeomans, director, protective services south, Bob Stenhouse, director, corporate investigations, Eric Lavoy, director of policy and professional standards and Greg Smith, director, enterprise security systems and analysis. His portfolio consists of a budget of $120 million with $53 million in ancillary revenues; 600 employees (management, peace officers, security staff, parking enforcement), 40,000 parking stalls province-wide and 900+ health care sites spread across the province, which includes acute care health care, public health and EMS.

Of the 900 health care sites in the province, there are about 130 acute care hospitals in Alberta, ranging in size from 3,000 to 200,000 square metres. Those acute care hospitals range from small eight-bed northern facilities to 1,000-bed urban acute care bed hospitals.