Mr. Chair, it is important to explain to the public what is currently happening. The government is acting strategically. At first, the Liberals said it wasn't important to invite representatives from the Treasury Board Secretariat, and now they're saying it is. They tell us the problem is the two-week deadline. I proposed extending it until June 19. Today is May 5. The Minister of Health is unable to find the time to appear before the committee regarding a $300 million program that will end in a few weeks. Yet this is a reasonable time frame.
Currently, the government wants there to be no deadline. That would mean the minister could always tell us she's too busy to come. I suggested giving her a month, then a month and a half, or even nearly two months, and that's not enough. So, it's quite simple: The government doesn't want the minister to appear. We learned the truth today from the president of Canada Health Infoway. He told us clearly that he had already had discussions with the minister, with ministers' offices, and with members of the government. Dr. Peter Vaughan has been president of Canada Health Infoway since March 2017.
The government is unable to take responsibility for its actions in this latest Liberal scandal. The Liberals claim that the Minister of Health wouldn't have time to come meet with us. That's quite unbelievable. However, we have some news for them: We already passed a motion last February, when the government was in a minority situation. Back then, oddly enough, motions were passed more frequently. That motion called on the Minister of Health to testify regarding a matter that the Parliamentary Budget Officer is set to examine and that is linked to another scandal—namely, the provision of health care to asylum seekers. The Minister of Health is already scheduled to appear after May 23. So she'll have to come sooner or later.
I think the government has just trapped itself. Today, by refusing to set a timeline, it's clearly showing us that it doesn't want to shed light on this matter in a timely manner. So, we are losing the opportunity to ask questions of a government representative—and not just any representative. It is the Minister of Health. She has been in office since April 2025, and it was last fall, in November 2025, that her government decided to end the PrescripTIon program. It is therefore legitimate for us to ask her questions.
It's quite clear: first, the Liberals don't want to take responsibility for this scandal. Second, they don't want to be held accountable. They're hiding behind a logistical issue—the minister's schedule. Third, even when we act in good faith by asking how much time the minister needs—whether it's a month, a month and a half, or two months—they say they don't want to set a timeline.
I'll be even more specific, Mr. Chair. I went to see members of the government to ask them what would be reasonable for them, but they won't answer me, just as they won't answer the public. So, these people are accountable today, but we can see that they are protecting their own interests, of course, because by summoning the minister, we will be able to ask her for an explanation of what happened, and she will have to take responsibility for it.
So, the motion already provided for a flexible timeline. We're not asking for the impossible, in my opinion. If everything was handled properly, it shouldn't be difficult to come explain what happened here. One thing is certain: We won't let this drop. We're going to keep pressing the government to shed light on this, because there are people who made bad decisions. That doesn't make them bad people, even if one might doubt it if one had the facts and documents—which the government, of course, refuses to provide.
Today, we want to know why a $300 million program failed. Why, within the government apparatus, from 2017 to 2026, did no one see that it was going to fail?
Ministerial responsibility is one of the principles of our democratic system, and right now, there are people who do not want to follow the rules of that democratic system. First, they're cobbling together a majority with defectors, which certainly doesn't demonstrate a strong respect for democracy. Then, today, they're adding insult to injury. The government doesn't want the minister to come and be held accountable, to explain to us what decisions she made, why she made them, and the information she relied on to do so. That is what we are asking for today.
So, I hope the public is listening closely, because they will clearly understand that, unfortunately, the government is hiding things from us, under the pretext that the minister's schedule is too busy. I hope my colleagues can explain to their fellow citizens that they do not want their government to clarify its bad decisions. As for me, I will be proud to tell the citizens I represent with dignity and pride that we have done everything we could in this matter to try to get answers. As we are seeing once again today—we will have to get used to this—this government is developing bad habits when it comes to managing its IT systems and public finances.
That is what I had to say about this new Liberal scandal called PrescripTIon.
