Liberals Use New Majority to Shut Down $300M Health Spending Investigation — Behind Closed Doors

The Carney government's Liberal majority just did something that should disturb every Canadian who believes in government accountability: they voted — with no explanation — to move a Parliamentary health committee investigation in-camera. The program being investigated, PrescribeIT, had a $40-million budget when it launched. Over a decade later it consumed over $300 million of your money — and was quietly cancelled this year. Now, when Conservatives try to find out what happened to that money, the Liberals are slamming the door.

$40 Million — Then $300 Million — Then Cancelled

PrescribeIT was launched in 2017 as a federal digital health initiative to build an electronic prescription service connecting pharmacists and doctors across Canada. The idea was straightforward: modernize how prescriptions flow through the healthcare system. The budget at launch: $40 million. It was overseen by Canada Health Infoway, a non-profit funded entirely by the federal government.

Nine years and $300 million later, PrescribeIT was cancelled. The program failed to achieve meaningful national adoption. Doctors and pharmacists were slow to integrate the system, and the rollout stalled. This year, the Liberal government quietly ended operations effective May 29, 2026.

Conservative health critic Dan Mazier — who has been driving this issue — made the comparison stark: "The program began with a $40-million budget and has since ballooned to $300 million over the past decade." That's a 650% cost overrun on a program that is now being shut down without producing the national electronic prescription network it was designed to build.

To put this in perspective: $300 million could have funded 600 rural doctors for a full year, built several community health centres, or covered a substantial share of Canada's urgent mental health care gap. Instead, it went into a digital health program that couldn't get doctors to use it — and was cancelled.

The Cover-Up: Liberals Vote to Hide the Investigation

When Conservative MPs on the House of Commons health committee moved to investigate, they ran straight into the Liberal majority that Carney's government now wields. Here is exactly what happened:

On Tuesday, April 28, the health committee convened to examine PrescribeIT. Mazier moved a motion calling for the committee to obtain documents and financial records from Canada Health Infoway and Telus Health — the two entities most directly involved in running and contracting the program. Standard parliamentary oversight. A reasonable request.

In response, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health Maggie Chi moved to go in-camera — to close the meeting to the public and press. A vote was called. No explanation was given. No justification was offered. The Liberal members, using their new committee majority, voted to shut the public out.

On Wednesday morning, Liberal MPs Doug Eyolfson and Sonia Sidhu — both committee members — refused to answer reporters' questions about why the meeting needed to be held in secret. Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon pushed back with a non-answer: "No one's shutting down debate. We're having lots of debate every day."

But Conservatives on the committee were blunt. "It was astounding, it was awful," said Conservative MP Matt Strauss. "I think if that's what Mark Carney plans to do with his newfound majority, I think Canadians should be really, really distressed." MP Burton Bailey said he was "very disgusted." Meanwhile, Conservatives have now called on the Auditor General to investigate — because evidently Parliament's own committee process is no longer available for that purpose.

The CEO Who Wouldn't Disclose His Salary

The in-camera vote followed another troubling moment last week. Canada Health Infoway CEO Michael Green appeared before the health committee and refused to disclose his annual salary — telling MPs that his compensation is set by the board of directors and is "publicly available." When MPs pressed for the number, he declined to give it directly.

The CEO of a fully government-funded non-profit, testifying before a Parliamentary committee, refuses to state his salary. Then the Liberals vote to close the investigation. This is not transparency. This is its opposite.

A Pattern — Not an Exception

This is not the first time Liberals have used procedural votes to shield spending from public scrutiny. It echoes the ArriveCAN scandal — where it took years of Parliamentary pressure to uncover that a $80,000 app became a $54 million disaster, with invoices that were falsified and contracts improperly awarded. The government stonewalled, slow-rolled, and minimized at every turn.

PrescribeIT smells similar. A ballooning budget. A cancelled program. A CEO who won't answer basic financial questions. And now, a governing majority voting — without explanation — to move the investigation out of public view.

If the $300 million was spent wisely, show Canadians the receipts. If the program failed for legitimate reasons, explain them publicly. If Telus Health's contracts were above board, release the documents. The in-camera vote says the Liberals would rather we not see any of it.

Canadians deserve better. Every dollar wasted on a failed digital health program is a dollar that didn't go to actual healthcare. And every Parliamentary investigation shut behind closed doors is accountability denied.