Health Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2026

[Tracy Fisher]

Largely, number one, animal welfare is at the top of my concerns, as is the welfare of the producer. There's also food security. If these animals are dying, they're not getting treated. That causes a massive chain reaction down the road and massive increases to the costs to produce food. I think that's something we all need to remember as well.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I go to Ms. Chi for the Liberals.

You have five minutes, please.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I listened to Mr. Mazier's line of questioning and the testimony very intently. What really resonated with me is the interconnectedness, or the lack thereof.

Dr. Weese, you mentioned the one health lens. Based on the best available evidence, I know there are a lot of gaps, in that sense. What do we actually know about the relative contribution of antimicrobial use in humans versus animals to the resistance that affects human medicine?

[Scott Weese]

We don't.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Do you mean not at all?

[Scott Weese]

We know some things. We know that antimicrobial use will drive resistance, whether it's humans or animals. We know there are some bacteria that move from animals to humans, so if we create resistance in animals, we can move that there.

As I said, one study showed changing antibiotic use practices. Reducing antibiotic use in food animals resulted in a decrease in resistance in humans. Is that a very niche component of the AMR problem? Is it 1%, 5%, 10%? We don't know. It's still relevant because it's such a big problem. It's important to try to figure that out, because we have to figure out where to put our efforts.

We approach this in an overly simplistic manner, without thinking about the nuances, and we could more efficiently approach it.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Dr. Weese, you mentioned the oversimplification of the public debate on these relationships, so my question is for you and Mr. Brockhoff. What risks arise, from your perspective, when AMR is framed as, for example, a responsibility of a single sector rather than a shared-system challenge?

[Scott Weese]

Well, we can put all our work in one sector and have very minimal gains. Sometimes, it's easy to say there's a problem over there, so they should fix their problem, and when they fix it, we'll fix ours. That won't work for this.

When we try to oversimplify things, we also run the risk of ineffective or potentially harmful approaches. There have been examples internationally where something has been brought in without enough thought and it's led to poor animal health and welfare and an increased use of antimicrobials. There are things we could do that would make sense to the general public, but when you actually look at the details, they would be harmful.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Brockhoff, do you have anything to add?

[Egan Brockhoff]

I would support Dr. Weese's comments and go beyond them. It's critically important that we don't work in silos, that we don't isolate ourselves. We, for example, work within an organization called Animal Health Canada, where we work with dairy producers—not just the pork producers, but also the dairy industry, the beef industry and the sheep and goats sector. We're working with all of them within Animal Health Canada on an antimicrobial resistance stewardship leadership group.

We recognize that it's critically important to be involved and not be trapped in silos. We know we have to work in a pan-Canadian framework. We are having conversations with our colleagues in the United States and Mexico, because we move livestock around and we move people around.

We also know that we have to have a one health conversation, and that's a difficult conversation to have. We need the Public Health Agency to be part of Animal Health Canada so we can have those conversations.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Thank you so much.

My next question is for Dr. Rubin.

Dr. Rubin, you mentioned antimicrobial stewardship and the responsibility for protecting animal health and welfare. Could you describe the practical challenges that veterinarians face when implementing antimicrobial stewardship on farms in general?

[Joseph Rubin]

I have less expertise on farms and agriculture. I think the committee has already heard some really good testimony from other witnesses.

One thing I can say is that I've always been really impressed by the real leadership of industry associations. This is an area where agriculture has advanced quite far beyond what we see in companion animals. For dogs and cats, we don't really have industry associations like the Canadian Pork Council or the provincial milk or poultry councils to support innovation, stewardship and best practices.

As far as the limitations that happen on farms are concerned, we've maybe heard about some of those already today.

With respect to companion animals, one very insightful comment by Dr. Nguyen was about diagnostic turnaround times and the fact that we don't always get laboratory results as quickly as we would like. This highlights the importance of having very solid evidence-based stewardship guidelines so that veterinarians can empirically, or as sort of the first line before they have laboratory evidence, pick the best and most likely to be effective antimicrobial that has the lowest impact on antimicrobial resistance.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Thank you so much, Dr. Rubin.

Do I have more time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 53 seconds.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Does anybody want to share my time?

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

I'll take it.

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Sure.

Those are all the questions I had for today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

That's it? Are you ceding your time?

[Maggie Chi, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I'm going now to Monsieur Blanchette-Joncas for two and a half minutes, please.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have only two and a half minutes, but thank you all the same.

Dr. Weese, I'd like to ask you a fairly simple question. How can we coordinate a strategy to tackle antimicrobial resistance with the one health initiative, which you support, without interfering in health care, which is the responsibility of Quebec and the provinces?

[Scott Weese]

The challenge in both human and animal health is the multiple groups involved. We need central coordination for communication. It doesn't need to all be directed at one level, but we need to make sure that we bring in the provinces, the territories and all of the relevant players so we can have those discussions to move efficiently.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Aren't you concerned that there will be resistance to change, especially because local health care delivery is the responsibility of Quebec and the provinces? If they disagree and the federal government wants to impose conditions on funding to support a national action plan on antimicrobial resistance, how do you see that playing out?

In my view, it's always a question of effectiveness, cost and speed. Is it more expensive? Is it more effective? I'm thinking of countries like Switzerland and Germany, which advocate an approach that allows for coordination without centralizing health care systems, which really vary from place to place. Quebec and other provinces have socio-demographic and even socio-economic realities that often differ significantly.

[Scott Weese]

The coordination doesn't have to be directive; it needs to be educational. If you look internationally, there's an independent panel on evidence for action being developed for AMR to provide information to member states of the UN about how to act. That doesn't direct the activity. You want independent, expert-driven assessments that can then be used for recommendations, not directives.