With respect to investments made in additional funding for mental health care and home care, to give you a snapshot as to where we're at, in budget 2017, as you've indicated, we were pleased that we saw an investment of $11 billion in those two areas. We've certainly heard from Canadians that the areas of home care and mental health were two priority areas, and I was extremely pleased that in budget 2017, targeted investments were made in those two areas.
As a result, over the past year and a half we've been in negotiations with the provinces and territories to finalize the bilateral agreements with provinces and territories. At this point in time, I'm pleased to announce that nine provinces and territories have finalized and have signed their agreements, and as for the other remaining four provinces, we are almost at the end of the negotiations, and either by the end of this year or in early 2019 those negotiations, those bilaterals, will be completed, and the monies will be flowing.
I also have to say that even before the bilateral agreements have been signed, money has been going to provinces and territories. We certainly want to make sure that people have access to the funding that's required, but those bilateral agreements are really key, because we want to make sure that the money is going where it's supposed to be going.
As per your question with respect to pharmacare—I think there was that component as well—as you're all aware, in budget 2018 we announced the creation of an advisory council on the implementation of a national pharmacare program. Work continues to be under way with respect to that. We are very pleased that Dr. Eric Hoskins and a group of fine Canadians have agreed to sit on this committee, and they've been having a national conversation with Canadians with respect to what a national pharmacare program can look like. I look forward to receiving the report in the spring of 2019 with some recommendations of possible options as we move forward. We recognize that the work that's been done in this area by the advisory council is key, and I truly look forward to receiving the report with recommended options and a path to move forward.