Thank you, Chair.
I will follow up on my colleagues' comments here.
The motion says “the adoption of artificial intelligence in health care, especially in research and innovation, data collection, health service, and patient-centred care”. If history is any lesson to us all, back in 2016, the Liberals announced a software program that was supposed to modernize how prescriptions are sent in Canada. They promised that PrescribeIT would eliminate fax machines for prescription drugs.
This was back in 2016, the Liberal-made problem. They announced a $40-million budget. Ten years later—this is what this kind of government will do now—the cost of PrescribeIT has exploded to over $300 million. What did Canadians get for that $300 million? Well, that is the $300-million question.
As of today—and this is what this big software program was supposed to replace—doctors are still faxing prescriptions, and less than 5% of those prescriptions are going through the PrescribeIT program. This is the kind of track record the Liberal government has when it comes to developing software. Why on earth...? I definitely agree that we need this AI and we need this study, but we have to learn from our past problems and the past issues that the Liberal government has created. For the life of me, I would think that sitting as an MP, as you go back out into your ridings, I don't know how you look at anyone as you stand on their doorsteps and say, “Hey, $300 million, yes, we blew through it, but we want some more.” I don't know how you guys would stand there and defend that conversation.
That's why I totally support the amendments, and I look forward to getting this cleared up and listening to the next witnesses.