The Camera Went Dark: How the Carney Liberals Seized Committee Control and Shut Down a $300-Million Investigation Into a Failed Program

By CanadaPress Investigative Unit

OTTAWA — Less than a week after the Liberal government seized majority control of every House of Commons committee in late April, the cameras went dark. At four separate committees on the same day, Liberal members voted to move proceedings in camera — behind closed doors, with no public record, no transcripts, and no accountability.

💀 Committee Gridlock: The Fight Over Taxpayer Transparency in Ottawa

📊 THE SEIZURE OF PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL

On April 21, 2026, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon announced the Liberals would unilaterally change the standing orders — the rules governing Parliament — to give themselves a commanding 7-4-1 majority on every committee. Previously, under the minority arrangement elected by Canadians, committees operated with four Liberals, four Conservatives, and one Bloc Québécois member — a fragile parity that at least forced negotiation.

The proposed 7-4-1 ratio gives the Liberals two extra votes per committee. Combined with the Bloc’s frequent alignment with the government, opposition MPs argued the new structure effectively eliminates any meaningful check on executive power.

“He’s going to stack the deck on committees to shut down investigations into his scandals, conflicts, and waste, because he thinks no one can stop him,” the Conservative Party warned in a fundraising email immediately following MacKinnon’s announcement. “Since 1867, the founding of our country, committees have reflected the results of the ballot box, not a manufactured majority. But now, Carney is trying to reset the balance of power on committees to limit his opposition.”

CanadaPress has confirmed this email was sent to supporters on the evening of April 21, 2026.

🔒 THE CAMERA WENT DARK — IMMEDIATELY

Within days of formalizing the new committee structure, the Liberals flexed their newfound power. On April 30, 2026 — less than a week after seizing control — CBC News reported that four separate committees were moved in camera on Liberal members’ motions:

1. Health Committee (HESA) — Moved in camera precisely as it was discussing a motion to probe the $300-million failed PrescribeIT program. Conservative Health Critic Dan Mazier: “We were going to ask the auditor general to come in and do an investigation, and Liberal MP Maggie Chi voted to shut down the cameras.”
2. Ethics Committee — Liberal members voted to go in camera after a Conservative motion that would have required the Privy Council Office to provide regular updates on the prime minister’s ethics screen.
3. Transport Committee — Liberals adjourned debate on a motion to produce documents related to the Port of Montreal expansion, then moved in camera.
4. Science and Research Committee — Moved in camera after a Liberal request to proceed to “drafting instructions,” shutting down a Conservative motion to probe a $200-million federal agreement concerning Spaceport Nova Scotia.

At a fifth committee — Veterans Affairs — the Liberal chair simply adjourned the meeting unilaterally, preventing any vote on a Conservative motion to study the effects of the 2025 budget on Canadian veterans. Conservative Veterans Affairs Critic Blake Richards called it a shutdown in real time.

The pattern was unmistakable: every time opposition MPs tried to launch an investigation into government spending, ethics, or accountability, the cameras were turned off.

When questioned on CBC’s Power and Politics, MacKinnon denied any weaponization of the in camera mechanism, insisting “nothing is being shut down” and that committees were “going quite smoothly.”

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💊 THE PARALYZED HEALTH COMMITTEE & PRESCRIBEIT — $300 MILLION INTO NOWHERE

Nowhere was the new committee reality more devastating than at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (HESA), where Liberal MPs spent roughly a month actively blocking any deeper investigation into PrescribeIT — a taxpayer-funded e-prescribing program that blew through nearly $300 million and then quietly died.

The program was launched in 2017 as part of the federal “axe the fax” initiative, designed to replace Canada’s antiquated system of faxed paper prescriptions with a modern digital platform. It was run by Canada Health Infoway, a federally funded non-profit that has absorbed more than $2 billion in Canadian tax dollars since its creation in 2001.

By early 2026, The Globe and Mail revealed that fewer than 5% of Canadian prescriptions were flowing through PrescribeIT. The program was dead — and nearly $300 million of public money had evaporated with it.

🔍 What Canadians Would Have Learned — If the Cameras Had Stayed On

The Health Committee hearings that did occur revealed jaw-dropping financial governance at Canada Health Infoway:

• CEO Michael Green was earning nearly $900,000 per year in total compensation. He was dismissed in April 2026 after a disastrous committee appearance where he could not adequately explain the program’s failure.
• CFO David Fast — a former colleague of Green’s — got his job through a non-competitive process, admitted board chair Peter Vaughan under oath.
• Five other senior executives earned salaries between $270,000 and $342,000, with bonuses of $60,750 to $76,950, and taxable benefits of $28,573 to $34,305.
• 24 vice-presidents and senior managers earned between $207,284 and $340,762 in total compensation.
• Total payroll for 175 employees: approximately $29 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year alone.

Despite these revelations, Liberal MPs on the Health Committee — now armed with a 7-4-1 majority — repeatedly blocked opposition attempts to deepen the investigation. Conservative Health Critic Dan Mazier accused Liberal members of “stonewalling,” stating plainly: “$300 million has gone into nowhere.”

In public session, Liberal MP Maggie Chi voted to shut down the cameras precisely when a motion was put forward to call the Auditor General to investigate. The committee’s spring sitting ended in complete gridlock, with The Hill Times reporting on June 22, 2026, that “Liberal MPs on the House Health Committee spent the last month blocking attempts by opposition MPs to look into Canada Health Infoway’s $300-million terminated PrescribeIT program.”

⚡ The Minister’s Last-Minute Response

On June 18, 2026 — only after weeks of public pressure and the committee’s complete paralysis — Health Minister Marjorie Michel finally acted. Her office announced a multiphase audit and strategic review of Canada Health Infoway, including:

• An independent, third-party audit
• A comprehensive strategic review of governance structures and operations
• Full withholding of $50 million in funding (the entirety of Infoway’s budget for this fiscal year) until the review is complete

The minister’s spokesperson, Alexandre Bergeron, told Canadian Healthcare Technology that frozen funds would be released on a reimbursement basis tied to “performance milestones.” The government pledged to publish key findings when the review is complete.

Conservative critics note that the audit came only after the committee was rendered powerless to compel it, and only after weeks of Liberal stonewalling on the committee itself.

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🔴 THE BIGGER PICTURE: A DEMOCRATIC EMERGENCY

The PrescribeIT scandal and the committee restructuring are not separate stories — they are the same story playing out in real time:

1. The Liberals, having secured a manufactured majority without a general election, restructure committees to lock in a supermajority.
2. Within days, they use that power to move multiple investigations behind closed doors — including the one into a nearly $300-million program that delivered almost nothing.
3. With cameras off and no public transcript, the committee spends a full month in gridlock, unable to compel witnesses or documents.
4. Only after the spring sitting collapses does the minister belatedly order the very audit the committee was trying to demand — but on her terms, in her timeline, with no enforceable parliamentary pressure.

This is not about one failed tech program. This is about whether Canadians can trust that their elected representatives — on any committee — can actually hold the government accountable when $300 million goes missing into a digital black hole.

Between the ethics committee being shuttered to avoid scrutiny of the PM’s ethics screen, the transport committee being closed to avoid questions about the Port of Montreal, the science committee being darkened to dodge questions about a $200-million spaceport deal, and the veterans committee being adjourned to silence debate on veterans’ benefits — the pattern is systematic, not accidental.

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📢 DEMAND TRANSPARENCY

Canadians deserve answers to these questions:

• Who specifically approved PrescribeIT’s continuation despite years of near-zero adoption?
• Why did Canada Health Infoway’s CEO earn nearly $900,000 to oversee a program that reached less than 5% of its target?
• How many no-bid, non-competitive executive appointments exist at Infoway beyond the CFO?
• Why did Liberal MPs block a deeper investigation into this failure, and who directed them to do so?
• Will every committee that was moved in camera to avoid accountability be reopened for public scrutiny?
• Will the government commit to never again using in camera procedures to evade investigation of federal spending?

Demand open committee hearings. Demand the full audit findings be made public. Demand accountability for every dollar of the $300 million that went into PrescribeIT — and for every other program now shielded from scrutiny behind closed doors.

This is your government. This is your money. You have a right to know.

Sources: CBC News, The Hill Times, Canadian Healthcare Technology, The Globe and Mail, National Observer/Canadian Press, CTV News, House of Commons Hansard