Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when this bill was first introduced some time ago, I had some grave concerns about this bill. It has been quite a while now and I have been travelling around talking to many different people. I may be fortunate or unfortunate in the fact that in my riding, I have no basic hotels. There is one hotel there but if they rent out any rooms, it is very few rooms.
I applaud the Minister for taking initiatives towards tourism. We all know we talked about tourism in the North and what it could mean if we can develop the industry. Maybe if the industry develops enough I will have a hotel in my riding. If we do not have any money to put towards tourism, I know we will not have a hotel in my riding. Is the tax the answer to tourism? I am not sure, Mr. Speaker.
Up until last night, I was in support of this bill. I had nobody come forward except for one person at a meeting in Hay River who spoke against the bill. Whether he was speaking for a group of individuals or not, I am not sure. The other people who had concerns about the hotel tax must have been in hibernation since the bill was introduced, as far as I was concerned, because they did not make their views known to me.
However, something happened yesterday that all of a sudden these people came alive and all of a sudden my phone was ringing off the wall last night, supposedly all opposing the hotel tax.
There is one thing that I have learned since this hotel tax was introduced, we have an awful lot of accountants around. The Minister who introduced the bill has his figure that he thinks we will bring into the tourism industry. Everybody who has spoken against the bill has their figure of what it will do to the industry and what this tax will bring in. I have not heard two figures the same yet, Mr. Speaker. I, for one, am not an accountant. I would hope that this tax would do what the Minister is proposing that it will do.
Yesterday we flew to Fort Smith to a meeting there called Growing Communities and it had to do with tourism. The Minister was there and he was the keynote speaker. He did speak about the hotel tax. I did not see anybody throw any cups at him. If I took anything from the meeting, they were a little encouraged by the fact that he was going to be promoting tourism and he was going to be putting money into tourism.
I am a little surprised, Mr. Speaker, at Yellowknife's reaction to this. If anybody is making money in tourism right now, it is Yellowknife. I think if we are going to do anything in tourism in the Northwest Territories, there is going to have to be a sharing of wealth somewhere.
Although I have questions as to where this tax money would be spent, I am sure that if there is a bunch of money generated in tourism, whether it is through a tax or whether it is through a direct donation from this government, Yellowknife will be there with their hand out saying we want the biggest portion of it because we are the biggest population. That I do not doubt for one minute.
Just recently, Mr. Speaker, we went on a trip to Washington. It had to do with the oil and gas industry. Our representatives, who are tour guides in Washington, brought up an interesting point. They said, "How come you people are not down here promoting tourism as well as oil and gas?" The one person said, within about a five-mile block, there was something like 80 millionaires and they have travelled everywhere. He said if you were to promote tourism here, they are looking for a place to go. Money is no object to them. They want a place to go. It has to be promoted though. Every time I step on an airplane to go somewhere, I am amazed at the price we pay for airline tickets. The prices keep going up. Do we quit travelling? No, we continue to travel.
So, Mr. Speaker, we talk about industry being involved in tourism. I think they are very involved. I think they will sit back and complain about anything that is going to hurt them when it comes to a tax, but they will be very quick to make the profits from it. I do not know if this is a true fact or not, but I hear that the hotels in the Territories, or at least in Yellowknife, are probably the richest hotels in the world. Is five percent going to hurt them? I do not think so, Mr. Speaker. If they are that rich, I do not think they are going to turn anybody away because we are putting on a five percent tax. They will probably cut their rates by five percent to maintain their people.
Having said that, Mr. Speaker, I still have some concerns I would like the Minister to address if he is going to have a rebuttal to any of this, and I am going to reserve my vote until that time. I would like some clarification as to how this money is going to be distributed. I would also like clarification on whether we are collecting one dollar when we collect one dollar or are we collecting 20 cents? Those are a couple of questions, Mr. Speaker, that could probably sway my vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause