Madam Speaker, as I have said before in this House, I know some of the challenges of living in small, remote communities, because I come from a small, remote community and the nearest hospital is about 500 or 600 miles away. We have a nursing station. There are always challenges in delivering health care.
What I can say to the member, and I said this in a question period in response to her, with regard to funding, is that as Health Minister I increased funding for first nations health. Our government increased housing for first nations. The member voted against that.
I will continue to work with first nations communities to address their issues. In fact, I had to cancel a very important meeting with 400 chiefs in British Columbia to stay for this H1N1 emergency debate. I will continue to work with them.
I have had numerous meetings with the chiefs in Manitoba. In fact I was there just a few weeks ago and met again with the chiefs. I delivered a radio show to 65 first nations communities. I was in Regina. I went to a reserve to meet with first nations chiefs.
We will continue to work with the first nations chiefs, not only in the area of pandemic preparedness but also to address some of the health challenges they have in their communities.