Liberals block motion make health minister testify on failed e-prescribing program

OTTAWA — Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson moved to adjourn a health committee meeting on Tuesday, without agreeing to a motion to bring Health Minister Marjorie Michel to testify on the failed federal e-prescribing program PrescribeIT.

Bloc Québécois MP Maxime Blanchette-Joncas moved a motion to have Michel appear before the House of Commons rises for the summer break. Liberal members took issue with the timeline and after some debate, ended the meeting through a vote.

There is still no clarity on what happened to $200 million of taxpayer funds that was earmarked for the e-prescribing service, which began back in 2017 with an initial budget of $40 million.

The board chair of Canada Health Infoway, a federally funded non-profit organization that oversaw the program, testified on Tuesday about the program and blamed provinces for its failure and lack of national adoption.

“Every OECD country that has electronic prescribing as a national service has either mandated or used incentives, and that falls within the realm of the provinces and territories,” said Dr. Peter Vaughan, board chair at Canada Health Infoway, adding that the program was a “technological success.”

The head of the non-government organization’s board faced pressing questions from MPs for nearly two hours on Tuesday, in relation to one of its programs, PrescribeIT, which has cost Canadian taxpayers nearly $300 million over its nine-year lifespan. An announcement was made earlier this year that the program will end at the end of May, due to poor national adoption.

Vaughan said other jurisdictions have spent comparable amounts on digital adoption and were successful, adding that his organization knew “early on” that adoption of the digital tool was going to need mandates or legislation from the provinces.

Vaughan’s testimony comes a few days after the Canada Health Infoway board announced the dismissal of its president and CEO Michael Green, a decision that was made a little over one week after his testimony in front of the health committee, whose members are conducting a review into the program and how federal funds were spent.

Conservative health critic Dan Mazier and his colleagues have called for the auditor general to investigate the program.

Last week during a committee meeting, while discussing a potential review of the program, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health Maggie Chi moved to hold the meeting in-camera. A vote followed, with no explanation as to why the debate needed to be shielded from the public.

During testimony on April 21 in front of members of the health committee, Green refused to disclose his annual salary, telling MPs that his earnings are decided by the board of directors and are publicly available.

According to compensation disclosures on the non-profit’s website, the annual salary for the CEO during the 2024-2025 fiscal year was $616,700, plus $215,845 in performance pay and $51,569 in taxable benefits. Five senior executives pulled in annual salaries ranging from $270,000 to $342,000. Around 24 vice-presidents and senior managers earned salaries ranging from $207,284 to $340,762.

Those figures add up to an annual salary of $900,000 for Green last year. Vaughan said the decision to dismiss Green had nothing to do with the committee’s investigation into PrescibeIT.

Vaughan said they looked at comparable executive salaries in Ontario public hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and health-adjacent companies.

TELUS Health was the digital provider of the program. During testimony on Tuesday, its president Mohamed El-Demerdash confirmed to members that it received just over $98.1 million to develop and run the program, which is a third of the program’s overall costs.

At the end of Tuesday’s committee meeting, Mazier said it still remains unclear where the remainder of the funds went.

“I am getting a lots of emails, lots of phone calls, from very frustrated taxpayers and Canadians,” said Mazier.

Conservatives also asked about Canada Health Infoway’s hiring of its chief financial officer David Fast, who was previously employed at the same company as Green, Agfa Healthcare.

Concerns were also raised by opposition MPs about the intellectual property rights of the digital product, with TELUS Health maintaining 85 per cent of the IP and Canada Health Infoway holding only 15 per cent.

National Post

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