Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope I cover all of the main points that have been raised here. I have listened very carefully. I appreciate the compliments some Members have given to me on this bill and on my willingness to consult on this. I believe in consultation and I think it is important. We have to work with the people who are impacted from this and all sectors of the tourism industry, and no matter what happens here today, I am going to continue to do that.

I listened carefully today for some idea on an alternative by those people who opposed this. I did not hear the alternative. I do not know what it is. It is easy to say find it within, but you can only do that for so long. I was hoping to hear an alternative today. I was hoping that somebody would say instead of doing this, do this, but I did not hear that. I just hear people who are opposing it, saying we need more dollars in tourism. I think everybody said that. We need more dollars. We all agree with that. I do not think anybody disagrees with the need for dollars, but where do we get them from? How do we do this?

I heard some people say it is only going to raise $1 million, $1.2 million, as if that is chicken feed. I can tell you that $1 millions is a lot of money to a lot of people. You may not think so, but I think so. If I could raise another $1 million to put into tourism, that is a lot of money. If it is $800,000, or if it is $1.2 million, I am not going to quibble over that. That is a lot of money to put into an industry that needs money badly and where there are tremendous opportunities. We should not downplay a million dollars. It is important, every single million we have.

I heard people say there is no plan. Where is the plan? We do not have a plan. I do not have the regulations made. I do not have the detailed plan of exactly how it is going to be done because I am doing it through a consultative process. That is part of that process.

We have a draft tourism strategy that each of you have, and I hope you comment on it and provide us with feedback. I am working with the Northwest Territories Tourism Association and with the Hotel Association to build a plan, but this tax, as I said, is not going to come into effect for a number of months yet. We will have a plan before a dollar is ever spent out of this. I have to do that in consultation with the industry.

I cannot go out and...it would really be presumptuous of me and I think it would destroy all of the effort that I have done in consultation, to go out and build a plan and say here is the plan. This is it. I am not going to entertain anything else.

Let us be open-minded and let the industry who are going to be impacted by this have a hand in developing the plan. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that there will be a very clear plan put together long before this tax is ever put in place.

I have made a commitment that there will be a way of measuring results and we are working on that. We will work with industry on that to make sure that this money is spent and we know whether or not it is being spent effectively. Do not have any doubt that there will be a plan. If you expect me to do a plan, the act and the regulations and everything all up front, that is not the way I operate. I want to do it in consultation.

Some people said that they did not support this because it might mean other taxes. I have news for you. This has nothing to do with other taxes. You may have other taxes anyway. It is not linking to some other trend someplace. I cannot speak for future governments. You could very well have other taxes. This has absolutely no bearing on whether or not there are going to be other taxes, as if this is setting a trend somehow.

Some people said that they wanted to look at the whole picture. I agree. We have to look at the whole picture, and I think it was Mr. Miltenberger who made that comment, and there will certainly be opportunity as we get into the budget session to look at this in the context of the overall picture, long before we ever have to finally vote on this. Blue chip information, sure. I would love to be able to give blue chip information and we will. I think we will only get blue chip information as this evolves and as we implement it. Each of these hotels are very close with their information. They compete in a very competitive world and they have to maintain a lot of privacy and confidentiality in their work.

I want to say to Mr. Delorey that we are talking about a dollar for a dollar. We are not talking 20 cents. There may be some misunderstanding. The formula financing agreement with the federal government only applies if we increase taxes. If we add a new tax, we get to keep every dollar of that tax. It is not the other way around. We have a dollar for dollar.

When we negotiate a new formula, I do not know, but I tell you, I am going to work like heck to make sure that we get a lot better deal than we have right now. It is an 80 cents to 20 cents, deal. As I say, I cannot commit future governments. I cannot promise you something in a deal that is yet to be negotiated, but for the life of this agreement, it is one dollar for every dollar. It is a new tax. I hope to be very successful. I hope that we are working in a much different environment three years from now when the formula comes due for being renegotiated, so we have to be optimistic on that side. For now, it is a dollar.

We heard a lot today about the dollars, the lack of dollars. That is something we need to work on. I think the one thing we all agree on is that we do need new dollars.

A business plan, yes, as I said, one will be developed. Yes, there will be a clear accounting for all of the money that is raised through the tax and yes, every dollar will go into tourism and I tell you, it is a dollar for a dollar right now.

With that, I just want to say to the tourism industry that I really appreciate them working with me over the last months. If there is a better way of doing it out there, then I really hope that they come to me with it. I will work with them to help them. I appreciate the effort that all of the associations, the tourism associations, hotel associations, and everybody has put into this. I think it is a statement about the importance of tourism to the people that we represent here. I say thank you to everybody, including all the people in small communities who, even though Yellowknife will get a big benefit, so will the places in the little communities. This is their future. For many situations, they are not each going to have a diamond mine. They are not each going to have a pipeline going past them. This is a future. This is linked very much to people's traditional lifestyle.

Mr. Speaker, that concludes my comments. I feel very strongly about this, the whole tourism industry, and I am a bit disappointed by the people who speak against it. I am disappointed by the absence of other clear alternatives, but we will see where this goes. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.