Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. May, for coming today. I think your bill is very important. This has been a long-standing issue. I'm sure all of us at one time or another have heard from constituents who are suffering from Lyme disease. I know certainly, over the years, I've had many constituents come in and see me, and we've written letters, so I'm really glad to see that one of the key elements of your bill is the establishment of national guidelines.
What I heard over and over again was the incredible frustration and, literally, pain of people who thought they had Lyme disease, would go to a doctor or go to another medical practitioner, and couldn't get a diagnosis. It just seemed so incredible that in today's age people were not only suffering, but then they were having the additional suffering of not being able to know for sure what they really had, even though they suspected.
What I heard about repeatedly, and I'm just curious to know if this is what you heard as well and whether it's still as prevalent today, is the lack of testing. I don't know if it varies from province to province. I think that's one of the issues as well, that in some jurisdictions there is testing available and in other jurisdictions there isn't. So I wonder if you could just speak a little bit on that.
I agree obviously that prevention and education are very important, but it seems to me that the whole diagnosis and testing is just a critical step, so that we can get into a better treatment and management program, as you say. Have you any information to offer about diagnostic testing? For example, are there examples in Canada where there is good testing available? Is there a good case model that we could look at? I know we're not going to design the strategy, but I'm just curious to know. Are there some good practices going on in Canada?