Thank you very much for the question.
I would be very glad to return to the committee with information about Abitibi-Témiscamingue to give you a picture of investments we have made there, not only through CMHC and Build Canada Homes, which won't have done anything yet, but also through the department and CIB. We'll undertake to do that and bring it back.
Second, we invest in rural areas of the country, as I've noted. It's a priority. For every program that I've been able to find, we have a rural stream. It is part of the decision-making, and it is intentional to put resources into rural infrastructure. Your point, which I can't dispute, is that there is a greater need for rural infrastructure than there is funding we have available. I would say that is absolutely the case.
One more thing I would raise is that under our new program, the build communities strong fund, we have created an opportunity for regionally significant projects to be referred to us from the Major Projects Office. This is not really an asset class, but it's a new vehicle to get regionally significant infrastructure identified to us for funding.
For example, obviously Abitibi-Témiscamingue is well known for its mining sector and resource capacity. We have an ability there, through the Major Projects Office, to make investments in light of the economic growth opportunities in that area. We haven't done anything solid as a result of that linkage yet, but we are starting to talk with the Major Projects Office about housing needs where there are large investments coming in.
I won't divulge specifics here, but there's one in the Prairies. It's a major mining need. They're going to bring in thousands of workers, and those workers are going to need homes. On our docket is how we can help support the enabling of infrastructure through our programming, because those will be market homes; they won't be affordable housing. It's extremely important, though, for that investment to go forward and to be successful.
I think that's connecting the dots among an economic opportunity, the housing-enabling infrastructure, the housing that needs to be built and our role. If there are market intelligence opportunities from Abitibi that you would want us to know about, I'd be very glad to hear from you about those as well.