Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for raising this extremely important issue. The events taking place in some regions have shown us some real challenges facing first nations across the country. Over the summer, the Minister of Health travelled to many first nations communities in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec to see these challenges first-hand. She met with both first nations and Inuit leaders.
To address the urgent need for additional mental health supports in Attawapiskat, Health Canada has provided resources to add two mental health counsellors as part of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation crisis response unit. We are also working with the community, the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority, the province, and other partners to coordinate our response and enhance services for youth at risk.
To truly improve the wellness of indigenous peoples, we must focus our efforts on improving the social economic conditions that they face. We need to find a way to restore hope for these communities and to support healthy child development. This is why our government laid out a comprehensive plan of investment in budget 2016, which includes $8.4 billion for better schools and housing, cleaner water, and improvements for health infrastructure, including nursing stations.
Our government is already taking action to enhance care in all remote first nations communities. We are improving access to mental health supports, improving infrastructure and working to ensure needed equipment is available. To address critically needed health infrastructure for first nations communities, budget 2016 also provides an investment of $270 million over the next five years. This funding is supporting the construction, renovation, and repair of nursing stations and residences for health care workers.
Health Canada also continues to fund culturally appropriate mental wellness programs and services for first nations and Inuit individuals and communities. This includes activities aimed at mental health promotion, suicide prevention, addiction treatment and aftercare services, counselling, and other crisis response services. We invested over $300 million in 2015-16 for these programs and services. This includes $13.5 million annually for the national aboriginal youth suicide prevention strategy, which supports 138 community-based suicide prevention projects in first nations and Inuit communities.
Strategies to prevent suicide and improve mental health for first nations and Inuit need to be developed, planned, and managed with first nations and Inuit. This is why Health Canada worked with the Assembly of First Nations and mental wellness leaders to develop a first nations mental wellness continuum framework, and is working with the ITK to develop an Inuit specific framework.
In response to ongoing mental health and suicide crisis in some indigenous communities, the Government of Canada announced a further investment of $69 million over the next three years for immediate interim measures to support first nations and Inuit communities. This funding will increase the number of mental wellness teams in communities from 11 to 43, as well as support an additional four mental health crisis intervention teams. It also provides $9 million in funding for Inuit specific approaches to mental wellness to address the unique needs of the population and to establish a culturally safe 24-hour crisis support line.
Our government is committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples to make progress on the issues that are most important, and health is one of them. It is vital to our nation's future that the federal government work in genuine partnership with indigenous communities and provinces to ensure better health, social, and economic outcomes for indigenous people.