We've heard loud and clear that housing is an issue in rural Canada. Minister Hussen has done incredible work on the housing issue, but perhaps we need to apply a different lens in some areas of rural. Is there an abandoned school or a vacant business that we can...? We have funding in place. How can we repurpose that for housing initiatives? How can we come up with seniors housing so that the seniors can move out of their large homes and then we have homes available for transient workers who want to move permanently into these rural communities or immigrant families who want to move into these rural communities.
Transit, as I alluded to earlier, is an issue, too. As we turn to a greener economy we have to come up with solutions that fit rural Canada. We have $250 million in a rural transit fund and that's going to discover the projects and programs that can work and the policies, frankly, for rural Canada that can help address that transit need.
On infrastructure, as you know, my friend, we have great bilateral agreements with the provinces where we partner with them on projects. However, it's up to us to make sure that we work with the municipalities so we know what projects the provinces are putting forth. Is it the bridge that's important or is it waste water that's important in their community? Maybe it's a new fire hall that's important in their community. We need to work with the communities on the ground from the bottom up, not from the top down, to see what they need to build healthy, vibrant, safe and growing communities.
Both of my colleagues have talked about the opportunities that are out there. Those opportunities are in rural Canada as well. When we get everybody connected, I can't wait until I can sit down with my colleagues at the table and announce that some of these programs on innovation and growing are really impacting the positive growth for our country. We need to grow that number from 30% GDP in rural Canada. We need to grow that. Connectivity is number one. Infrastructure, housing, healthy communities are numbers two, three and four. When we get that in place, look out, rural. We're ready.