Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fall and winter are a busy time of year for gatherings in the North. This year will be no exception. In a couple of weeks, the Geoscience Forum will flood the town with about 300 people in the mining and oil and gas business. In March, we are going to have 500 youth from across Canada meeting here for the Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving national conference. Prospects North next September could see as many as 350. The list goes on.
The North is what the convention and meeting trade might call an exotic destination. We are off the beaten path. We are expensive. We are a bit unpredictable and we are very different from the mainstream meeting venues of Banff or Vancouver or Winnipeg.
Central to the planning of all of these events, big or small, Mr. Speaker, are the facilities that Yellowknife and other communities in the Northwest Territories have to offer to attract conventions. We have the hotels, airline services, restaurants, shopping, and unique attractions to satisfy what a lot of delegates want.
What we do not have, some would argue, is a dedicated convention centre. There has been talk lately about plans of some development companies to create such a facility in Yellowknife. That is great, but until the plan is unveiled, Mr. Speaker, we really have nothing to go on. I would urge anyone out there who has a viable plan: do not be shy. Tell us about it.
In the meantime, Mr. Speaker, I think we have other things we could work on to enhance this very valuable and very viable part of our tourism industry. We need a collaborative approach to bringing the services and the facilities together to combine resources to do a really good job of attracting and hosting conventions and meetings.
The challenge for us is to get a consensus and a will among business and government to work together and join forces. Set up the marketing and coordination systems that will attract and serve the conventions and meetings that I am confident are out there.
I think it is timely to raise this issue, Mr. Speaker, as our government has a draft tourism strategy out there, and so does the Northwest Territories Arctic Tourism Association. Can we not work together, Mr. Speaker, to bring our common goals into focus? I believe we can. I believe the convention and meeting industry is one we can agree on and continue to build what promises to be a vital and profitable part of our tourism future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.