Thank you very much.
Through the chair, I'm happy to say that I was in Saskatchewan last week, I think, or the week before last; time takes on a new meaning in COVID. On the last trip I took, I was in Saskatchewan and I had a chance to meet with the FSIN and many other individual chiefs in the region. We talked a lot about housing. As a matter of fact, in my opening remarks, I reflected on the leaders who have spoken to me about housing and, as I was saying those words, I was reflecting on the conversations I had specifically in Saskatchewan.
As you know, budget 2021, for example, commits $6 billion for infrastructure, including shovel-ready infrastructure projects and operations and maintenance costs, along with many other investments in first nations health, including $5.5 billion, for example, to improve health outcomes through timely access and culturally appropriate medical care.
You point out that housing is a critical ingredient in defeating infectious diseases like tuberculosis, and I would agree. I'd also say that we have to work more quickly on supporting culturally appropriate medical care and access. Many of the first nations leaders I spoke to on that trip talked to me, quite eloquently, actually, about the exclusion they felt from appropriate medical care from the Government of Saskatchewan and spoke about the need for urgency in the codeveloped health legislation and in appropriate and culturally appropriate care that can be provided closer to home for people who are treating, in some cases, very difficult to treat illnesses like tuberculosis.
There's work on the housing front and on the social determinants of health, but also on the actual delivery of health care that, as you know, we deliver in partnership with provinces and territories.