Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk a bit about tourism and tourism development, especially in the western Arctic. We are all aware that the oil and gas industry is not a major player now in the western Arctic. They basically moved out and shut down their camps. The only industry, if we can call it quasi-industry, is government. As the Minister mentioned today, the government
plays a major role in keeping people in the communities busy through their capital estimates.
But in the western Arctic, tourism is a growth industry. We have major attractions now throughout most of our communities. We have a lot of natural attractions that people across the world are coming to the north, especially the western Arctic, to experience. The other major attraction in the western Arctic -- an experience, I guess -- is the Dempster Highway. We're finding a lot more road traffic travelling up the Dempster Highway.
I had the privilege this summer of travelling the Dempster to see for myself the conditions of the road and also an opportunity to look at some of the parks and the sites and talk to some of our travellers who come from different parts of the world. The majority of them come up and they all have favourable comments other than it's a long drive. They're disappointed once they get to Inuvik; they want to drive all the way to the coast to Tuktoyaktuk so they can dip their toes in the Arctic Ocean.
I fully support the Minister of Transportation's initiatives, in looking at our highways and seeing that there is some money in the capital budget for improving the Dempster Highway. We have a lot of attractions in the western Arctic. We have renewed interest in tourism. There's a revised group -- the Western Arctic Tourism Association. They have a new executive director and the communities are involved...