Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few questions I would like to ask Mr. Handley, and a few points I would like to make. Initially, I would like to start off and refer a bit to the tourism strategy that is in the works. I believe we really have to get going in this area and have an overall look at the tourism industry and see what kinds of things we can do to stimulate growth in this area. I think it is critical for diversifying the economy.
Mr. Handley has discussed several initiatives he feels are going to be used to promote tourism. One thing I would like to discuss is a constituent's concern, which was the lack of a presence at Expo. The committee has also made mention of this, that we did not attend Expo 2000. I believe the department's response, both to the committee and to me, was that it was deemed that this was going to be too expensive and we were not going to get the best bang for our buck in this area. They had determined they could get better mileage from other venues and better mileage from attending other events in other capacities, given their limited means and budget.
They also explained to me that they had looked carefully at Expo, costed out what they figured it would take to attend, and deemed it was not cost-effective. On one hand, I am disappointed that we did not have a presence at Expo, but I am glad to hear that they actually take the time to weigh out some of these things and do cost benefit analysis. I think that is something that is often lacking in other departments in other areas. I am wondering if the Minister can talk a little bit about some of the other things he is proposing to do internationally in lack of attendance at Expo to try to stimulate tourism.