Michael Guerriere, a managing partner of Courtyard Group, was also named as eHealth's interim senior vice-president of strategy and billed more than $3,000 a day as consultant, the report said. Guerrierre's wife, Miyo Yamashita, who heads Anzen Consulting of Toronto, received more than $300,000 in eHealth contracts.

The CBC reported that she charged $300 an hour for communications advice and services such as reviewing Kramer's holiday voice-mail greetings and confirming details for a seasonal party, reading New York Times articles on diabetes and electronic health records and a "debriefing" chat on the subway. ITWorldCanada sought interviews with Accenture, Guerriere and Yamashita, but got no response.

eHealth also paid two consultants who are based in Alberta. Documents show Allaudin Merali and Donna Stratling charged $2,700 a day for their services and billed the agency for their flights and accommodation in Toronto. The total cost runs to about $1.5 million.

Asked to justify the high-priced e-mail and travel receipts her consultants racked up, Kramer said: "Communication is vital in this work. And traveling is needed because you can't do this type of thing sitting around in boardrooms."

Kramer said that during her tenure she managed to iron out the issues over the consolidation of the province's previously separate e-health program. "We've got a really good plan and were much closer now to having electronic health records throughout the province," she said.