Evidence of meeting #29 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infoway.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Was that a yes or a no? You cut out at the very first there.
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
What I'm saying is that we're strategically looking at opportunities to leverage our technology to help implement connected care pathways—
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Is it fair to say that if Telus Health plans to provide a service...? Does it plan to monetize an e-prescription service in the future, yes or no?
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
Telus Health's IP can be leveraged for an array of services, which may or may not include e-prescribing services.
As I said, the technology already existed, and 85% of the IP was owned by Telus Health, which could serve as the basis for connected care services—
Conservative
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
It is something that we would be [Inaudible—Editor].
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
I apologize, Mr. Mazier, but the online audio is not coming in consistently. I don't know if there's any way to correct it.
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
The volume isn't consistent. I don't know if there's a way to up his volume.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
We're resuming the meeting.
Continue, Mr. Mazier. You have three minutes and 45 seconds left.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Thank you, Chair.
When Canada Health Infoway tried to find a private company to take over PrescribeIT, did Telus submit a bid, yes or no?
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
In 2017, we participated in an RFP process, and we were chosen as the technical provider for PrescribeIT.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
That was in 2017, but when they put it up for sale the last time—in 2025, I guess it was—did Telus submit a bid, yes or no?
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
Infoway launched an RFEOI process, which was—
Conservative
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
—official. Telus, though, did not choose to participate in it.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Telus did not participate. I find that quite puzzling, because you built the program and you ran the program for almost 10 years, and then you didn't bid on it.
What was wrong? Why didn't you bid on it?
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
It's important to clarify roles and responsibilities in this context.
We were not the program operator, nor were we responsible for provincial onboarding and clinician recruitment. We were responsible for providing the underlining technology to a highly scalable and secure standard, which we've provided over the course of the agreement.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Okay. Why didn't you bid on it? You knew all about the program. Was there something wrong with it?
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
Again, our relationship with Infoway was purely contractual, meaning that we were the technology provider. There was no reason for us to move forward with an expression of interest. We were already providing the service. The service was highly scalable and enabled all provinces to process 180 million transactions over the course of the arrangement.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Respectfully, you didn't really answer the question of why you didn't bid on it. Obviously there was something wrong with the program that made you figure you would not bid on it. You weren't interested in continuing on with that program. Is that correct?
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
That is not what I'm saying. We were under agreement with Canada Health Infoway when this process launched. We were providing the technical capabilities that were required from us by the government.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Okay, I get that. Very good.
Does Telus retain any ownership of the intellectual property underlying PrescribeIT?
Vice-President, Provider Solutions, Telus Health
As I mentioned previously, when the process started, we already had pre-existing IPO, about 85%, in the Telus Health Exchange, which was chosen as the exclusive provider for PrescribeIT.
