Health committee  We received $100 million from the federal government. When we went to market to look at the specifications, the bill was something like $300 million. We obviously couldn't afford the $300 million, so we had to sit the country down and say we have to make some concessions somewhere in terms of the specifications, and we cut it back I believe to $130 million, $150 million.

Health committee  Madam Chair, this was part of the $500 million, where we needed to accelerate the medical record at the community level. So far the heavy lifting has been done by the provinces, but it's moving up too slowly. We are really at the back of the bus when it comes to the rest of the world.

Health committee  The one part of the country we're struggling with is Nunavut. There certainly have been commitments that the broadband will be extended up to Nunavut by the time we're ready to roll out the systems. In Iqaluit, it's fine; we can get the systems there. But to get them down into the communities is going to take some work, I believe through Industry Canada.

Health committee  As I've said before, when you look at the six elements that we're talking about, it's building out those six elements. Once we've done that, it is a matter of access and authority to access those files. Frankly, at the end of the day we want Canadians to have access to their own medication history, to their own lab results, and we want Canadians to allow whoever they want—a chiropractor, whoever they want—to have access to those files as well.

Health committee  I have to tell you that one of the great successes, I believe, of an Infoway, which is no more than an instrument from a national perspective to bring the provinces together, has been aspects of commonality. Whether it is the architectural design adopted by the provinces, which is the standards, or whether it's entire applications, like the PharmaNet system, which we pick up from B.C. and implement and replicate in Alberta and in other provinces, or whether it's bringing three provinces together, as we did, and going out to tender for diagnostic imaging, saving something like $60 million because we had critical mass and putting it back into the system, there is a huge amount of collaboration.

Health committee  An electronic medical record is typically a record that is at a provider's location. Given that we all go to see our GPs, we want to build electronic medical records whereby a vast majority of your records will be there. Having said that, as individuals we seek services at times in emergency rooms, at clinics, in private labs, etc.

Health committee  I tried to point out some of the successes. I pointed out one success in British Columbia where, with a project like PharmaNet, pharmacists will have access to all dispensed prescriptions. They're picking up something like 2.5 million adverse events that could occur and are changing the prescription, typically in collaboration with the prescriber.

Health committee  I wouldn't say that they got a lot more than their per capita share; they've just completed their project. I'll take one second to explain what we mean by this, because there's some confusion. There are six fundamental elements that make up an electronic health record. There is one uniquely identifying Canadians, which we call a client registry.

Health committee  Madam Chair, thank you for that question. I've been working at the national level now, having come from a province, for the last 15 to 20 years. I've never seen the kind of collaboration that is taking place between the federal government and the jurisdictions as I've seen around this particular project.

Health committee  Thank you. The goals, first, are a call to action. They are premised on the goals put forward by the provinces and the territories. As Madam Fraser has said, at Infoway we can only move as quickly as the provinces and territories move, so based on the plans put forward, we felt that by the end of 2010 we should be able to get to 50%.

Health committee  Certainly from an administrative perspective we do, and at this stage also from a financial perspective. Again, if the provinces saw that we would incent use with the building of electronic medical records, etc., it would incent the provinces to move faster, because they'll be pushed along by the clinicians in the field as well.

Health committee  As part of our submission, we brought forward a report that was done by the Conference Board of Canada, which says for every $100 million, 1,500 knowledge worker jobs are created in this country; that for every dollar spent, the GDP is increased by $1.34. These are knowledge worker jobs that are dedicated to the digital economy, which Canada hopes to become.

Health committee  Bonjour. Let me give my response in two parts. I said this is very similar to building a house. You have to have the house built and available and then you can sell it and it can be used. So in terms of having the house available and the systems for 50% available, the answer is yes.

Health committee  The answer to that would be no. In the federal government, part of the model of Infoway is that for every dollar the federal government invests, we leverage that dollar with a provincial dollar; if $1.2 billion is invested by the federal government, then rest assured that about $2.4 billion is being spent, because that's been leveraged.

Health committee  We're really not in any negotiations, so to speak. The government did allocate this money in their budget. Based on some of the goings on, certainly in Ontario, we suspect we were put under due diligence. For the last 18 months, the Auditor General has been conducting a major report.