Harper Government Involved in E-Health Scandal. What Will Hudak do Now?

As part of the government's Self-promotion Economic inaction plan, they have allotted a half a billion dollars, to Canada Health Infoway Inc., to create electronic medical records.

Not sure how this was a priority during an economic crisis, though I'm sure when all of this is laid out, we will find a few cronies who were in need of a few bucks.

Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, he federal government plans to invest up to $500 million in Canada Health Infoway.

The funding would be used to support the goal of 50 percent of Canadians having an electronic health record by 2010, to speed up implementation of electronic medical record systems in physicians' offices, and to develop electronic systems that connect points of service (e.g., hospitals, pharmacies and community care Facilities). Their secure systems would enable authorized health professionals across the country to access patient records quickly and easily.

So for all of Tim Hudak's accusations against Dalton McGuinty and his involvement with this mess, looks like the federal Conservatives are not so squeaky clean either. What will Timmy's campaign slogan be now.

'Vote for us. We're not as crooked as the Harper government. Honest!'

Health Canada handed out millions of dollars to a national eHealth agency without properly accounting for how the money was spent, a new audit says. The finding raises doubts about Health Canada's own record of accountability even as it conducts due diligence before deciding whether to give Canada Health Infoway Inc. another half-billion dollars.

The internal audit examined a $400-million, five-year deal the department signed in 2007 with Infoway, created to ensure all Canadians have an electronic health record by 2016. Infoway received its first cheque, for $38.7-million, in October 2007.

This is John Baird and Enron all over again. So much for accountability.

But the auditors suggest the deal was so badly crafted that Infoway was not required to provide enough information to Health Canada to ensure the money would be well spent.

Sheila Fraser cited a raft of contracting and reporting problems at Infoway, including one contract that ballooned to $726,000 from $144,000 without competitive bids. Fraser also found 13 contracts in a sample of 35 that were
signed only after the work had begun.

IS THIS REALLY CONSERVATIVE? IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?