Sorry? Lots of rats, rat backs? Pelts. Oh, thank you. I stand corrected.
These rat pelts need to be sent to Manitoba to be processed into hats when we could be marketing these hats here in the territories and make it such a common item, an inexpensive item, that people will be able to buy them and use them. We have to promote that a little bit more and maybe we can include that in that market.
I have one more item, Mr. Chairman, that I just wanted to comment on and that's parks and visitors' services. I know we have some nice parks along the roads that people can stop at and take a bit of a rest at. We probably need more of those day-type parks where we can see the lake and stuff like that just using Highway 3, as an example. Highway 1 from the border to the junction of Highway 3 and Highway 3 to Yellowknife could use more places where people could stop and have a look at the Great Slave Lake. Right now, there's only one or two places along that whole route from Hay River to Yellowknife where you can actually see the lake and the thousands of islands and the beauty that it has. It's encouraging to see that we're going to do some more work in those areas south of Great Slave Lake. It says there Hidden Lake. Great, but I think that we have to promote Great Slave Lake a little bit more in this area, Mr. Chairman, because it is a very interesting area that they're going through here and, in my opinion anyway, it's very inexpensive to develop this kind of tourism attraction. I would caution the department to be careful about how much we're going to start charging people. I recognize that it's good to get some fees out of tourists, but I think they do contribute to the economy in other ways. If we start increasing the fees so much people may not choose to come, at least by wheeled vehicles, into the territories and then we will lose in the long run.
Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to make those comments on the Minister's presentation. I don't have a problem with the other areas he has touched on. The Minister and his department should be commended for the work they are doing in the areas I haven't dealt with and which haven't been dealt with by other Members. Thank you.