Health committee  I wouldn't venture to put out a number. Dr. Ouellette with some of his research colleagues may have a more accurate figure. That's certainly one of the things that moving forward is the type of information we'd look to gather. But I don't have a specific figure right now.

Health committee  The one thing I would say that would be important to re-emphasize is that collaboration, which my colleagues have said has happened across sectors, between different levels of government, and so on, just needs to continue. We need to maintain the momentum.

Health committee  As I mentioned earlier, in the new framework, one of the key pillars is surveillance. I think once we get past the framework, into a concrete action plan, yes, it will.

Health committee  Yes. We'll look at all the gaps, for example, at indigenous communities, rural settings, also at strengthening surveillance for antimicrobial use in addition to the resistance in the outcomes.

Health committee  Before we get to that part, the framework itself won't actually have something to be implemented, because it's, in a sense, a high-level policy document. It sets out the parameters in terms of the four pillars and what we want to work on. Once the framework is released, we will get to the heavy lifting, as they say, working through our task groups and with all the partners to develop the concrete action plan.

Health committee  Yes, they will. They will also be part of the development of the concrete action plan in each of the pillars.

Health committee  The framework sets the foundation, and with the concrete action plans, once we actually develop the specific actions in each of those pillars, there will be targets or objectives set out. That's how we will be able to measure one year, five years, or 10 years moving forward.

Health committee  Yes, imminently.

Health committee  I would venture to say it will be this year, in the next few weeks or so. It's more about the appropriate approvals in terms of sign-offs, but in terms of the actual document and all the hard work that has gone into it, the actual framework is there.

Health committee  There are a lot of programs out there. Just in reference to a previous question, it's interesting that among health care practitioners—I'll focus on physicians—as Dr. Ouellette pointed out, the young future practitioners in medical schools now are well aware of the issue of AMR.

Health committee  It has been very good. Obviously, it's challenging in some ways, as others have alluded to, with the fact that the federal government can't do it alone. Just between governments, having to work with provincial and territorial governments that obviously have the responsibility for the delivery of health care services, we recognized going in that this might have an impact in terms of how the services are rolled out, maybe even budget impacts.

Health committee  Not to get into last week's discussion, but there are obviously differing views in the medical community regarding Lyme disease. In terms of acute Lyme disease and what the treatment is—antibiotics and so on—that's pretty well established. However, for these individuals—some of whom have chronic symptoms that could be consistent with Lyme disease but there's not an actual laboratory confirmation—it is, to be quite honest, a controversy.

Health committee  Thank you, Dr. Ouellette. Sure, I can add to that. Certainly, the surveillance we do across the country for AMR is good, but it could be a lot better. For example, most of the surveillance we have for human illness is based in hospital settings in terms of what kinds of infections are prevalent.

Health committee  Maybe I can answer that. My understanding is that there is a patient who obviously has a serious bacterial infection that requires antibiotics. Sometimes, based on what they understand the prevalence of bacteria to be within a community, physicians might give a broad-spectrum antibiotic, thinking that will most likely be able to deal with the infection.

Health committee  I think it's been very comprehensive and it's been very encouraging, as I mentioned before. We've had great collaboration on both the animal health side and the human health side. As we speak, I note that it's gone through various approval levels in terms of provinces and territories as well as the federal level for both agriculture and the human health side.