Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I wish to point out to the Member that this is not a tax on the hotel operators. This is a tax on the occupants who use the hotel rooms. A lot of those people are tourists and so on.
Keep in mind, as well, that we are projecting that this is going to give us a net increase of a million dollars. A million dollars is a million dollars.
I sympathize with the small bed and breakfast operators and hotel operators who are trying to run a viable business. I also have a lot of sympathy for small tourist operators who are trying to eke out a living in the tourism industry. I feel sorry for a lot of the people in the small communities who want jobs and there is no opportunity there.
So, Mr. Speaker, I have committed to spend the money that we collect here, the net amount of money, the million dollars, to put that back into tourism. That is going to help a lot of people in the communities and, in fact, even in the large centres.
This is an opportunity to build our tourism industry and I think we can benefit a lot of people. The government cannot do everything by itself, we need to work in partnership and we need to get revenues from other sources. This is not just a tax grab, this is an investment opportunity. This is an opportunity for everybody in the North to benefit. Thank you.