Matt Strauss

Mr. Speaker, they spent $300 million on PrescribeIT. In response to my question on June 8, she announced she would halt the $50 million she planned to give Canada Health Infoway this year. On June 18, her spokesman, Alexandre Bergeron, told The Globe and Mail that they actually are going to give the $50 million away to this totally incompetent organization after all. Which is it and why? Why will she not permanently save Canadians this money?

Mr. Speaker, the Canada Health Infoway CEO who oversaw this disaster, Michael Green, was paid $1 million a year to do nothing of value. Conservatives have obtained his termination letter. It says that Canada Health Infoway plans to give him another year's worth of salary and $200,000 in performance pay, and continue his car allowance for this year. Michael Green now claims that he was fired in order to prevent him from testifying at the health committee. Is this why she is still thinking of giving Canada Health Infoway another $50 million? Is it to buy silence from this incompetent CEO?

Mr. Speaker, it is such a pleasure to be back again for the late show. I shared the topic of my question with my colleague on this side. Questions regarding PrescribeIT are consistently not being answered in question period, so that is why we are here. I am not happy to be here this late. I imagine the parliamentary secretary across the way is also not happy. We could put an end to this if he would just answer the questions tonight. To put this into perspective for Canadians, $300 million was blown on a piece of software that did not work. That is $50 million more than the Liberals spent on the sponsorship scandal that brought down the Paul Martin government. I happened to bump into a popular television personality on Sparks Street today, and I mentioned to him that I was going to come do the late show about the PrescribeIT scandal. He asked, “What's that?” I asked, “You go on CBC frequently and talk about politics, and you haven't heard of this $300-million scandal?” Do they know, on the other side of the House, how many nurses $300 million could hire? Do they know how many hospital beds could be constructed with $300 million? When a financial catastrophe such as this happens, $300 million is how much money 300 Canadians who worked their whole life long for a paycheque would be lucky to see over the course of their whole life. The Liberals wasted the life's work of 300 Canadians on something that did not work at all. Why are they not interested in getting to the bottom of this with us? My question in question period was very simple. Michael Green was getting $1 million a year to do nothing, as far as those of us on the health committee could tell. He got fired. The Minister of Health previously, in question period, told me that he got fired after she spoke with the board, but the chairman of the board, Dr. Peter Vaughan, told the health committee that the Minister of Health had never spoken to the board, so what the heck happened? This is important. The member opposite talked about accountability. Who is accountable? Is the Minister of Health the person who fires the CEO when he wastes a bunch of money, or is she not? The people who sent us here to the chamber just want to know what happened with the money. Finding out who was in charge of firing the CEO is step number one. It could be that this was all a miscommunication. It could be that the Minister of Health told her representative, Jocelyne Voisin, to fire Michael Green, and then that Jocelyne Voisin went to the board and did not tell Peter Vaughan that why she wanted to fire Michael Green was that the health minister told her to. It could be that Peter Vaughan was just left out of the loop, but if that is the case, let us get to the bottom of it. If that is the case, why would the health minister not say that this is what happened? Why would the Liberals on the health committee go to all the lengths they have gone to in order to shut down our investigation? He spoke at length about the third party investigation they are paying for. Is it independent? We have an independent Auditor General. The independent Auditor General was asked to look into this, but because the Liberals hustled in and got a third party to look into it before them, they have now brushed the Auditor General aside. Why are they not answering the questions of members of Parliament? Why are they not allowing the Auditor General to do their work? Are they not ashamed to be covering up a scandal larger than the sponsorship scandal? Is this how the member opposite wants to spend his parliamentary career: coming here late at night to continue to obfuscate the questions we ask that are reasonable and that our constituents, every Canadian taxpayer, wants to and deserves to hear the answer to? Did the health minister, or did she not, fire Michael Green through her representative on the board?

Mr. Speaker, that is a very interesting point. I later asked the Minister of Health if she would be disbursing the funds. She said no. However, a week later, her policy spokesperson, I believe his name is Alexandre Bergeron, told The Globe and Mail that they would be disbursing the funds. I would like the member to confirm, based on the statements of Alexandre Bergeron from the minister's office, whether it is in fact the case that no funds are flowing through right now. That is a really important point. I have a second point. The member talks about the program working, but 95% of doctors refused to use the program, and that is before the Liberals put the 20¢ copay on the pharmacist. Every pharmacist group in the country that I spoke with said they were not going to use the program. They made a program that nobody wants to use. I would say that it is not working. Why will the member not just answer the question? Did the health minister act to remove Michael Green or did she not? It is a very simple question. It does not matter if it is before the courts or not. The member has absolute privilege to give a true answer here and tell the people of Canada what happened with the money. Did the health minister fire Michael Green?