$300M PrescribeIT Scandal: Michael Green Oversaw $300 Million Failure While Telus Kept the Software

The PrescribeIT program was launched in 2017 by Canada Health Infoway, as a federal initiative to create a national electronic prescribing service. Canada Health Infoway spent nearly $300,000,000 of taxpayer money on this effort over approximately nine years. The system achieved adoption rates of less than five percent of all prescriptions nationwide. The program is now being shut down at the end of May in 2026. Doctors are still using fax machines for most prescriptions in Canada today.

Michael Green has served as president and chief executive officer of Canada Health Infoway since 2014. He oversaw the full lifecycle of PrescribeIT from its launch through its failure and current wind down. During recent testimony before the parliamentary health committee, Green provided limited details on overall spending breakdowns. He repeatedly avoided stating his own salary figure on the record, even when pressed by members of parliament. Ian Lording, as executive vice president for health solutions and operations at Infoway, directly led the operational aspects of PrescribeIT. This included vendor management and efforts to drive adoption among doctors and pharmacies. Doctor Peter W. Vaughan has chaired the Infoway board of directors since 2017. The board approved budgets and continued funding for the program, despite persistent low uptake and known challenges with provincial participation.

On the vendor side, Telus Health received approximately $98,000,000 as the primary technology provider for PrescribeIT under a contract awarded in 2017. Racho Batchvarov, as vice president of provider solutions at Telus Health, has testified on the program. He confirmed that Telus retains about 85 percent of the intellectual property developed with public funds. This arrangement allows Telus to potentially repackage and commercialize elements of the system privately after the government program ends. Paul Lepage served as president of Telus Health during the critical early years of the contract award. He played a key role in securing and shaping the partnership. Higher level oversight at Telus came from executives such as Darren Entwistle, who led the parent company during much of this period.

The core issues center on the flow of nearly $300,000,000 in public money into a project that delivered almost no nationwide benefit. A private for profit company gained substantial payments and retained ownership of the resulting technology. Infoway operates as a not for profit organization, but it depends almost entirely on federal funding and reports to deputy ministers of health across jurisdictions. This structure created weak incentives for accountability, especially since provinces declined to share ongoing costs and the federal government continued funding without enforcing stronger adoption measures. Later attempts to charge pharmacies about 20 cents per prescription further reduced participation and accelerated the programs collapse. Liberals on the health committee have filibustered or weakened motions seeking full release of contracts, spending details, internal audits, and related documents. This has forced conservatives, including Dan Mazier, to call emergency meetings under standing order 106 subsection 4.

Public records show no direct family ties, such as spouses or close relatives linking these executives to sitting politicians, nor any proven personal kickbacks or criminal breaches to date. Instead, the connections form a standard revolving door pattern common in Canadian digital health initiatives, where senior figures move between government funded roles, private vendors, and advisory positions. Telus, as a major telecom contractor, maintains extensive lobbying relationships with federal and provincial governments. It has benefited from multiple public contracts in health information technology. Infoway board members and executives, including Vaughan with his background as a former deputy minister of health in Nova Scotia, operate within tight networks of health bureaucrats and industry players who approve multi million dollar decisions with limited external scrutiny. Testimony and document resistance have heightened suspicions that full details on profit margins, subcontractor flows, executive compensation, and any internal warnings about low adoption were not transparently shared with parliament or the public.

This situation represents a clear failure of oversight, where hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds produced negligible improvements to healthcare delivery in a country already facing severe pressures on wait times and access. The upcoming May 6 committee testimony from Green, Vaughan, and Telus representatives, along with any compelled document production, will determine whether further accountability measures, such as clawbacks, firings, or reforms, follow. Until then, the combination of massive spending, dismal results, private retention of assets, and ongoing opacity leaves Canadians with justified questions about who ultimately benefited from PrescribeIT. Dan Mazier, as conservative member of parliament and shadow minister for health, has led the push for answers on who got rich from this $300,000,000 failure. Helena Konanz, as conservative member of parliament, pressed Green directly on his salary during testimony. Other committee members from various parties participated in the hearings and document demands, but the primary accountability pressure comes from the conservative side. Senior Health Canada officials have also been involved in oversight of Infoway, but specific additional names from that department have not been highlighted as central witnesses in the recent sessions.

Michael Green serves as president and chief executive officer of Canada Health Infoway. Doctor Peter W. Vaughan serves as chair of the Canada Health Infoway board of directors. Ian Lording serves as executive vice president for health solutions and operations at Canada Health Infoway and operational lead for PrescribeIT. Racho Batchvarov serves as vice president of provider solutions at Telus Health. Paul Lepage served as former president of Telus Health during the main contract period. Darren Entwistle served as chief executive officer of Telus Corporation overseeing the health division. Dan Mazier serves as conservative member of parliament and shadow minister for health leading scrutiny of the program. Helena Konanz serves as conservative member of parliament who questioned Green on compensation during committee hearings.