PrescribeIT by province: what each province is doing in September 2026

The most common follow-up question we get after “what replaced PrescribeIT?” is “in my province?” That is the right question, because the answer now differs by jurisdiction. This page is the status board: which provinces used PrescribeIT, what each one is doing four months after the May 29, 2026 shutdown, and what that means for your intake or prescribing workflow. We update it as provinces announce plans.

The short version

Province	Had PrescribeIT?	Status, September 2026
Quebec	Pilot (Estrie, since May 2024)	Revived as Prescription Québec under a four-year provincial deal (July 17, 2026); expanding to ~1,900 pharmacies
New Brunswick	Yes (44% of prescribers enrolled)	Moving to RxNet, a vendor-neutral network from Leap Orbit; no public go-live date yet
Ontario	Yes (92% of prescribers, 94% of pharmacies enrolled)	No provincial successor announced; prescriptions by fax and paper
Alberta	Yes (31% of prescribers enrolled)	No successor; TPP Type 1 drugs back on secure paper pads since May 30, 2026
Saskatchewan	Yes	No successor announced; fax
Manitoba	Selected communities	No successor announced; fax
Newfoundland and Labrador	Selected communities	No successor announced; fax
Prince Edward Island	Yes, integrated with the province’s TELUS-based system	No separate announcement; provincial rules differ
British Columbia	No (declined in 2019-2020)	Unchanged; PharmaNet, fax and paper as before
Nova Scotia	No (declined over funding model)	Unchanged
Territories	No	Unchanged

Enrolment figures are from The Globe and Mail’s June 2, 2026 review of the program; coverage of 688 communities across seven provinces is from PrescribeIT’s own February 2023 update.

Quebec: the only revival

Quebec never joined the national rollout. It ran a pilot in the Estrie region from May 2024 that connected 8 clinics (138 physicians) with 14 pharmacies and pushed electronic transmission above 50% of prescriptions in participating stores. When federal funding ended, Ottawa granted a three-month extension, and on July 17, 2026 Canada Health Infoway and Santé Québec signed a four-year agreement to run the platform as Prescription Québec. The Quebec Health Ministry pays the operating cost, pharmacies pay no per-prescription fee, TELUS Health remains the vendor, and the target is all of the province’s roughly 1,900 community pharmacies, with earlier provincial materials pointing to 2027-2028. Omnimed is the only integrated EMR so far. We cover the deal in detail in PrescribeIT is back, but only in Quebec.

What it means: Quebec pharmacies and clinics should ask their vendor where they sit in the rollout schedule. Until your pharmacy system or EMR is connected, intake is fax like everywhere else.

New Brunswick: a different network

New Brunswick was one of PrescribeIT’s fully rolled-out provinces, with 44% of prescribers enrolled before the shutdown. Rather than revive the Infoway platform, the province is moving to RxNet, an e-prescription network built by Leap Orbit, a health-technology company that also operates health information exchange infrastructure. Leap Orbit describes RxNet as launching first in New Brunswick and as vendor-neutral infrastructure compatible with the Infoway e-prescribing standard.

Three details matter for pharmacies and prescribers:

Pharmacies get a portal first. Registered pharmacies can access e-prescriptions through the RxNet Pharmacy Portal from day one, while direct pharmacy-management-system integrations are built afterward. That means prescriptions arrive in a web portal, not inside Kroll or another PMS, until the integration exists.
RxScribe is the first prescriber tool. RxScribe is the initial certified prescribing system connected to RxNet. It handles e-prescribing only and does not replace a clinic’s EMR. Other EMRs can connect over time through certification.
Lifecycle visibility is the pitch. RxNet keeps a shared prescription status record, so a prescriber can see what happened after a prescription was sent, which PrescribeIT did not do well.

As of September 2026 neither Leap Orbit nor the province has published a go-live date, and no pharmacy-system integration has been announced. Separately, New Brunswick prescribers must register with the province’s new prescription monitoring program, MaveRxNB, from August 31, 2026 before prescribing or dispensing monitored drugs.

What it means: New Brunswick pharmacies should plan for a portal-plus-fax period. A prescription in a web portal still has to be entered into the pharmacy system by a person unless intake automation handles it.

Ontario: the biggest base, no successor

Ontario had the deepest PrescribeIT penetration in the country, with 92% of prescribers and 94% of pharmacies enrolled by February 2025, and pharmacy chains including Metro and Loblaw had rolled it out. The province has announced no successor service. OntarioMD’s guidance for prescribers describes e-faxing from the EMR as the current transmission method, and EMR vendors such as TELUS (CHR, PS Suite) directed users to print or fax and offered their own eFax add-ons. The FreedomRx network that Accuro clinics and Loblaw pharmacies used in parallel retired on May 1, 2026.

What it means: Ontario is where the fax surge is largest in absolute terms. Pharmacies on Kroll are the audience for AI fax-to-Kroll automation; clinics keep prescribing in their EMR with a transmission layer until the open standard ships.

Alberta: back to secure pads for controlled drugs

Alberta was a “fully rolled out” province but only 31% of prescribers had enrolled. The Alberta College of Pharmacy’s notice on the shutdown carried the most concrete regulatory consequence anywhere: since May 30, 2026, Tracked Prescription Program (TPP) Type 1 medications must again be issued on physical TPP secure prescription pads unless another approved exemption applies. No provincial successor has been announced.

What it means: Alberta pharmacies need both a fax-intake plan and a paper-pad handling plan for TPP drugs.

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI

Saskatchewan was fully live; Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador had PrescribeIT in selected communities; Prince Edward Island connected it to the province’s existing TELUS-based clinical system. None of the four has announced a successor. TELUS’s own CHR guidance notes that PEI users face different requirements because of the provincial system. In all four, prescribing has reverted to print and fax, and pharmacy intake is manual entry.

British Columbia and Nova Scotia: nothing changed

British Columbia rejected PrescribeIT in 2019-2020, citing data-privacy risk and an unsustainable business model, and continued with PharmaNet plus fax and paper. Nova Scotia declined to join over funding-model sustainability. The shutdown changed nothing operationally in either province, though both are affected indirectly: any future national approach will run through the Infoway open standard, which BC and Nova Scotia vendors can adopt on the same terms as everyone else.

The national layer: an open standard, no service

Canada Health Infoway published its national e-prescribing standard at the end of April 2026 (Infoway lists April 29; provincial notices circulated it as of May 1) and will maintain it. It defines how prescriptions are structured and exchanged so that any certified EMR and pharmacy system can connect, without a central federal operator. As of September 2026 no EMR or pharmacy-system vendor outside Quebec has announced a shipping implementation. The Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada, which represents chain and banner pharmacies, called in February for coordinated federal-provincial investment so that the open-standard approach actually gets built.

Federally, the program’s end is still being examined. The Globe and Mail reported on June 2, 2026 that total spending reached $298 million, that TELUS Health received about $98 million of it, that the 20-cent transaction fee introduced in January 2025 raised $2.6 million in its first quarter against roughly $11 million a year in TELUS costs, and that Infoway’s former CEO was dismissed after hearings into his compensation. Ottawa has announced an audit and a competitive procurement for an independent assessment.

What to do, by situation

Quebec, on Omnimed or a participating chain: join Prescription Québec as your vendor schedules it; automate fax intake in the meantime.
New Brunswick: register for the RxNet pharmacy portal when it opens; plan for portal-plus-fax until your PMS is integrated.
Every other province, pharmacy side: treat fax as the transmission layer through 2027 and fix intake now. The Kroll automation guide covers vendors, workflow and compliance.
Every other province, clinic side: keep prescribing in your EMR and add a transmission layer; see the clinician page for the EMR-by-EMR path.
Everyone: the PrescribeIT alternatives comparison lays out every option, including waiting for the standard and doing nothing.

If you want to talk through your province and your stack, book a 30-minute walkthrough.

Frequently asked questions

Which provinces had PrescribeIT? Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, plus selected communities in Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, and a Quebec pilot. British Columbia, Nova Scotia and the territories never joined.

Is PrescribeIT still running anywhere? Only in Quebec, as Prescription Québec, under a provincial agreement signed July 17, 2026.

What is RxNet? A vendor-neutral e-prescription network from Leap Orbit that New Brunswick is adopting after PrescribeIT. Pharmacies use a web portal first; RxScribe is the first certified prescriber tool. No public go-live date as of September 2026.

What are Ontario pharmacies using after PrescribeIT? Fax and paper. No provincial successor has been announced; prescribers e-fax from their EMRs and pharmacies transcribe, or automate intake.

Has any vendor implemented the Infoway open standard? Not outside Quebec as of September 2026. The standard exists; no EMR or pharmacy-system vendor has announced a shipping implementation.

Sources

The Globe and Mail, “Ottawa’s PrescribeIT program failed after nearly $300-million spent. What happened?” (June 2, 2026)
The Globe and Mail, “Cancelled federal ‘axe the fax’ digital prescription program gets new life in Quebec” (July 27, 2026)
PrescribeIT, “2022 at a Glance” and February 2023 coverage update (688 communities, seven provinces)
Leap Orbit, RxNet product page (leaporbit.com/rxnet)
Nurses Association of New Brunswick, prescription monitoring program update (MaveRxNB, August 31, 2026)
Alberta College of Pharmacy, “PrescribeIT e-prescribing service to cease operations May 29, 2026”
TELUS Health CHR help centre, “PrescribeIT service termination”
Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada, statement on the sunset of the national e-prescribing tool (February 13, 2026)
Gouvernement du Québec, “Prescription Québec : Santé Québec poursuit le déploiement du projet” (July 17, 2026)