Minister of Health Marjorie Michel speaks during a news conference, May 28. During Monday’s Question Period, Ms. Michel acknowledged there were 'governance issues' at Canada Health Infoway.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Health Minister Marjorie Michel says the government is withholding $50-million in federal funds from Canada Health Infoway, the organization responsible for the $300-million failed PrescribeIT program, until it addresses concerns about governance.
Separately, the chair of the House of Commons health committee wrote to Canada Health Infoway on Tuesday to urge it to turn over documents to a parliamentary probe, saying it could otherwise potentially be found in contempt of Parliament.
Canada Health Infoway is a government-funded non-profit that runs some federal digital health programs. It launched PrescribeIT in 2017 as part of “axe the fax” initiatives to replace fax machines with digital alternatives. But the program was shut down in most of the country last month because fewer than 5 per cent of prescriptions flowed through it.
The organization’s board dismissed its long-time chief executive officer in late April after a disastrous committee hearing, as well as a series of stories in The Globe and Mail about the program’s problems and high expenses, such as the CEO’s nearly $900,000 in annual compensation.
Ottawa’s PrescribeIT program failed after nearly $300-million spent. What happened?
In response to questions from Conservative MPs in the House of Commons in recent weeks, Ms. Michel said the government budgeted $50-million for Canada Health Infoway this fiscal year, which began April 1.
During Monday’s Question Period, Ms. Michel said the government is careful about its spending and continued: “That is why, when we realized that Canada Health Infoway was not completely fulfilling its mission, we decided to halt funding.”
In response to questions about whether the $50-million would be spent, Ms. Michel’s office said Tuesday that the minister has not yet signed off on the contribution agreements to send those funds and that they represent the organization’s entire federal funding for this year.
Canada Health Infoway did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Although PrescribeIT is ending, Canada Health Infoway has also been working on setting national standards for electronic health records. The organization could take a leadership role in implementing Bill S-5, which was introduced earlier this year to create new rules that would make it easier for patients and doctors to share health data, a concept the industry refers to as interoperability.
Alexandre Bergeron, spokesperson for Ms. Michel, said the organization’s future responsibilities have not yet been decided.
“While its work on interoperability has informed the development of S-5, the development of the regulations associated with the bill will be determined once the bill has been adopted,” Ms. Bergeron said.
During Monday’s Question Period, Ms. Michel acknowledged there were “governance issues” at Canada Health Infoway.
“Someone from the federal government sits on the board of directors, and the necessary measures were taken,” Ms. Michel said. “The CEO has left, and we have an acting director right now. The people involved are currently reviewing the mandates together to see how we can do a better job of solving the governance issues.”
She said the board would report back to her by the end of the summer.
Canada Health Infoway announced last week it had named executive vice-president Abhinav (Abhi) Kalra as the interim CEO and president.
Canada Health Infoway and PrescribeIT have been the subject of hearings by the House of Commons health committee in recent months. The committee’s work has largely ground to a halt in the past month because of attempts by Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs to request Ms. Michel testify about PrescribeIT at the committee – requests that Liberal MPs are blocking.
However, Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, who chairs the committee, wrote to Canada Health Infoway on Tuesday to urge it to turn over documents that MPs had requested in April.
The Globe reported last week that the non-profit was weeks overdue in turning over agreements and contracts with Telus Health and other vendors, as well as details of its spending on consultants. Telus Health was the main technology vendor and has disclosed it received $98-million of the total $298-million in federal funds spent on PrescribeIT.
“The power to send for persons, papers and records is rooted in the Constitution and is constitutional in nature,” Mr. Dhaliwal wrote in the letter. “It is not subject to statutory and contractual restrictions and supersedes other privileges, such as commercial and third-party contractual agreements.”
The letter concludes: “I must remind you that failure to comply with the order to produce the documents could result in the committee reporting the situation to the House of Commons, which in turn, could lead the House to find Canada Health Infoway in contempt of Parliament.”
Conservative MP Dan Mazier, his party’s health critic and a member of the health committee, said “if this organization cannot be transparent about where taxpayers’ money went, Canadians should have no confidence in its ability to oversee another dollar of public funding until the Health Minister answers for the mismanagement.”
Canada Health Infoway told The Globe last week it was working on the committee’s requests but had to sort through a large volume of records and had concerns about secure transmission of files.