Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today on an issue that has been before the city council of Yellowknife.

The city of Takefu, Japan, recently approached the council and invited them to join them in a twinning program. Yellowknife council voted down the proposal saying it was a nice idea but it was too expensive. As a result business members and members of the tourist industry then asked the aldermen to revisit the issue and the decision.

Based on this expression of support and concern from the various groups, council decided to go ahead with the trip. Mr. Speaker, next month, a delegation led by the Mayor of Yellowknife will visit Takefu, Japan to officially commemorate and celebrate the twinning of Takefu with Yellowknife.

Seeing the northern lights in the winter sky is a very moving experience for many Japanese who find our northern lights fascinating, coming from a small industrialized country. Japanese visitors are also overwhelmed by the vast, unspoilt wilderness of the north. This trip to a northern twin city, to our twin city in Japan will encourage more visitors and awareness of the NWT as a tourist destination for Japanese visitors.

Mr. Speaker, I know that there have been some concerns expressed about what this visit might cost the city of Yellowknife, however, I prefer to see this as an investment not a cost, considering that, at present, about 1,500 Japanese visit Yellowknife every winter, mainly to see the aurora and about 17 local jobs are directly created as a result of these visits. On top of that, the tourists spend money on various other outdoor experiences, purchases of arts and crafts, souvenirs, hotels and airplane trips. In fact, it is estimated that each winter these Japanese tourists spend about 1.8 million dollars in the NWT while they are here. Since 1989, Bill Tait of Raven Tours, a visionary local businessman, has worked hard to develop a market for Japanese tourists wanting to see the aurora borealis. By 1994, it was predicted that the Japanese tourists visiting the NWT would double in two years, and that is exactly what has happened.