FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 27, 2025
Statement from Matt MacFarlane on Health PEI withholding publicly-funded healthcare reports
Charlottetown, PE – Islanders have every right to know how their tax dollars are being spent – especially when it comes to critical issues like healthcare. Reports paid for by the public belong to the public. The recent decision by Health P.E.I. to withhold publicly-funded documents, requested by the Guardian, under the claim that they are “not in the public interest” is both disappointing and unacceptable.
Last year, the provincial government awarded a sole-source contract worth almost $6 million to KPMG to establish a transformation office within Health P.E.I. KPMG was tasked with helping to develop strategies around five major healthcare priorities: workforce recruitment, patient medical homes, the provincial patient registry, the UPEI medical school, and Health P.E.I.’s organizational structure. As part of this contract, KPMG has produced reports including recommendations on each of these five major healthcare priorities.
These are not just internal policy questions, they are issues that directly impact the healthcare Islanders receive. With growing wait times, staffing shortages, and thousands of Islanders still without access to a family doctor, people deserve to know what advice was given, what work was done, and whether – for $6 million – it has made a meaningful difference.
This government has promised transparency time and again, yet Islanders are being told that it’s not in their interest to see the very reports that supposedly guide healthcare decisions. That is not how accountability works. We need to be honest and transparent with Islanders about how decisions are being made and whether their money is being spent effectively.
I am calling on the Minister of Health to immediately release all KPMG reports and related documentation in full. Islanders are footing the bill. They deserve the truth – not redacted pages and bureaucratic stonewalling.
Matt MacFarlane
MLA Borden-Kinkora
Third Party Critic for Health
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Katie Rankin
Chief of Staff
Office of the Third Party
Tel: (902) 213-6378
Email: kerankin@assembly.pe.ca