Conservatives Call for AG to Investigate $300+ Million PrescribeIT Failure
Ottawa, ON – Dan Mazier, Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, issued the following statement calling on the Auditor General (AG) to investigate the Liberal government’s failed $300+ million PrescribeIT program:
“In 2016, the Liberals announced $40 million in funding to develop a national e-prescribing service – PrescribeIT – that promised to replace paper prescriptions and fax machines. Ten years later, the cost to taxpayers had exploded to over $300 million, while less than five percent of prescriptions are sent through this program.
“Earlier this year, Canada Health Infoway quietly voted to terminate the program. Despite this, Mark Carney’s Health Minister has shown no concern for the cost of the failure, proclaiming during Question Period that ‘the money has been spent!’
“PrescribeIT is a $300 million Liberal scandal hiding in plain sight. Canada Health Infoway was picked to design the program, which then paid TELUS Health to develop it, but TELUS may have outsourced the work even further, while failing to achieve results.
“At the health committee, TELUS Health revealed it received $98 million for PrescribeIT, but could not disclose what intellectual property was created with these taxpayer dollars. The company indicated it may monetize the technology developed from PrescribeIT and develop its own e-prescribing service after PrescribeIT is terminated, raising further concerns about who actually benefited from the program.
“TELUS also refused to answer whether PrescribeIT work was outsourced offshore, despite confirming that only around 50 employees were dedicated to the program. Canada Health Infoway CEO, Michael Green, was unable to answer basic questions, forcing the health committee to summon him back to testify on his role in the $300 million PrescribeIT failure.
“Any CEO in the private sector who oversaw a failed $300 million program and then showed up unable to explain where the money went would be fired, but under the Liberals, there is zero accountability.
“Conservatives also moved to release the government’s contribution agreements and performance documents on PrescribeIT so Canadians could see where their $300 million was spent. Instead of allowing a vote, Liberal Members filibustered the health committee to block the release of those documents.
“That’s why Conservatives are calling on the Auditor General to investigate PrescribeIT. Canadians deserve to know where every dollar went, who received the money, who owns the technology, and why the program failed.
“Taxpayers funded the development of a failed software program they do not own, for a service that failed to replace fax machines, and the government and organizations responsible cannot say where the $300 million went.
“It’s clear that Canadians weren’t the ones benefiting from the PrescribeIT, so the $300 million question is simple: who did?”