Liberals spent $300M to axe the fax, and it failed
Despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars paid to Canada Health Infoway, Ottawa is only now slowly seeking an auditor to determine what went wrong, with taxpayers paying twice to get the full accounting.
Nearly $300 million of federal money went into a national e-prescribing service that most Canadian doctors and pharmacies never used, and now Canadians will pay twice to try to get to the bottom of where their hard-earned tax dollars went — and what went wrong with the program.
PrescribeIT was launched in 2017 by Canada Health Infoway, a federally funded non-profit, as a secure national system so prescribers could send prescriptions from their electronic medical records straight into pharmacy software.
At the time, the Liberal promise was simple: axe the fax, but in 2026, the fax machine is still humming. The initial pitch was fewer forgeries, fewer transcription errors, better opioid tracking, and support for virtual care. Telus Health was the main vendor and received about $98 million of the contract, yet official estimates put usage below 5% of all Canadian prescriptions.
Canada Health Infoway Board Chair Peter Vaughan attempts to defend the failed PrescribeIT program after $300 million in taxpayer funds was squandered with less than a 5% adoption rate from doctors. pic.twitter.com/jB9kA6Jjth
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) May 6, 2026
A 20-cent-per-prescription fee on pharmacies was introduced in 2025, which made adoption of the system even worse.
Provinces refused to take on ongoing operating costs and Infoway shut the service down on May 29, 2026, saying it would shift to an “open-standards” approach instead of running a central network.
Total federal spending on the project has been reported in the $250–298 million range over roughly a decade, with the original 2016 announcement earmarking about $40 million.
Infoway CEO Michael Green was dismissed effective immediately on April 29, after a House of Commons health committee appearance on April 21. He was pressed on low uptake, spending, and his compensation — nearly a staggering $900,000 a year. He could barely attest to any of it.
Conservative MP Dan Mazier grills Canada Health Infoway Board Chair Peter Vaughan about the failures of CEO Michael Green after he was fired over the failed PrescribeIT program that burned through massive amounts of taxpayer funds. pic.twitter.com/PLNGsA6CxR
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) May 6, 2026
Infoway has taken more than $2 billion from taxpayers since 2001. Its chief financial officer, David Fast, got the job through a non-competitive process as a former colleague of Green.
Conservative MPs, including health critic Dan Mazier and MP Matt Strauss, have pushed the committee for contracts, payments to Telus, performance documents, and related records. They are pushing for records to be made public, so Canadians can see exactly how the money was spent and why adoption failed.
Conservative MP Matt Strauss seeks answers from Canada Health Infoway Board Chair Peter Vaughan about potential conflicts of interest, executive compensation, and misuse of taxpayer funds stemming from the failed PrescribeIT program. pic.twitter.com/KRYUcUnUUl
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) May 6, 2026
The response from Maggie Chi, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, has been to filibuster — stretching debate, running the clock, and using closed-door discussions to delay accountability.
Key documents, including the full Telus Health agreements covering the $98 million vendor relationship, have still not been produced.
On June 18, Ottawa announced it would audit Infoway and Health Minister Marjorie Michel’s office promised a “multiphase review,” an independent third-party audit, then a broader look at governance, operations, and compensation.
The government had already frozen $50 million in funding until Infoway cooperated and now, two months later, a request for proposal (RFP) has officially appeared on Merx.
On August 26, Canada posted the RFP seeking a contractor to audit contribution funding provided to Infoway. The work is expected to run until December 31, 2026. The team required: one partner/managing director, one project manager, one senior auditor, one auditor, and one junior auditor.
Canadians have an announcement in June, and a tender in late August. Findings, perhaps, by sometime next year.
Conservatives have said the quiet part out loud: Infoway gets the funding of a government body and almost none of the scrutiny. Access-to-information rules that bind Health Canada do not bind this non-profit the same way.
Telus Health built what it called a “world-class highway,” but basically no one drove on it.
Patients, instead, still wait at the counter for paper and doctors still fax.
Canadians are told they have a world-class public healthcare system while they wait endlessly in emergency rooms and hunt for a family doctor.
The Liberals couldn’t axe the fax, but they have no trouble axing the taxpayers’ wallet.
If the government is serious about accountability, the next audit should not stop at a federally funded non-profit, but perhaps should start with Health Canada itself.
Featured Stories
