Evidence of meeting #33 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Mr. El‑Demerdash, TELUS received about $98 million in public funds for PrescripTIon. What was the original TELUS estimate of the cost of developing the platform?
President, Telus Health
I don't know the answer to that question, as that was back in 2016, prior to my being part of Telus Health. However, we can find the answer to that question and provide that to the committee.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Thank you.
Does TELUS own 85% of the intellectual property?
President, Telus Health
I'm sorry. Can you ask the question again? It was not clear.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Mr. Chair, don't just stop the clock; you have to give me back the time lost. Every time I repeat myself, I lose time.
Liberal
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
I have to repeat the same question, so I'm wasting time.
Liberal
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
So you're giving me back the time I took to ask my last question. Is that correct?
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
How many seconds are we talking about, Mr. Chair?
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
If I don't lose time, how much time are you giving me back to repeat the same question?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
I have made it very clear. I'm sure it's clear to the honourable members. When I stop the watch, it means your time....
Whatever you are saying, I'm not taking your time away from two and a half minutes. I hope it's clear to you now. Do you understand, or...?
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
It's not very clear.
Mr. El‑Demerdash, can the government freely use, modify or transfer PrescripTIon technology without TELUS?
President, Telus Health
The government and any other technical implementer can take the standards and certainly implement the same technology to whatever standards there are. We've obviously spent a lot of time and funding on our own side as well in developing the technology that is being used in this solution.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
The government holds only 15% of the intellectual property. Can it still make use of that share of the intellectual property without TELUS, yes or no?
President, Telus Health
In terms of the solution, if they were not to utilize the Telus Health technology that is underlying this highway we talked about, they would have to find that from somewhere else in order to make the system work.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
If a province or Quebec wants to continue the program, will they have to pay TELUS double just to keep using the software?
President, Telus Health
We would be in a position to have discussions—and we are having discussions with several provinces at the moment—to help in the transition and to keep the programs going, but it would be based on the requirements and the needs of each of the provinces.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Mr. El‑Demerdash, have you ever entered into agreements with the government worth $300 million or several hundred million dollars that allowed you to retain 85% of the intellectual property related to a software system?
President, Telus Health
It's important to recognize as well that the speed of the development of the solution was enabled by the fact that we had a lot of this technology already in place in advance, and that was helpful to getting the solution in place for Canadians faster.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you very much.
Now we'll go to Mr. Mazier for five minutes.
Please go ahead.