Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Weledeh is thriving in diversity, excitement and history. It is home to our original people who live in Detah and N'dilo. Long before Europeans came, their ancestors camped and fished and hunted in that area. It is also the original Old Town, home to many of our early explorers and developers. A lot of the names, the Rochers, the Bromleys, the McAvoys, the Weavers, the Larocques, and many, many more are common in that area.
It is home as well today to many of our leaders, including our Premier and the mayor of this fine city. It is home to people who have chosen alternative styles of life, including living year-round on houseboats and along the Ingraham Trail, or in the colourful old houses in the Woodyard or along Back Bay.
Weledeh is also a tourism mecca. Most of the aurora tourists, the Japanese tourists who come to the Northwest Territories, come to Weledeh. In total, about 60,000 person trips by Japanese tourists are made up and down the Ingraham Trail every year.
Not only do we welcome tourism in Weledeh but we are also daring tourists ourselves. In fact, as I speak today, Captain Todd Burlingame and his crew of Cal Brackman and Tim Coleman have either just arrived or are arriving in the Azures, having sailed a little ship, Sunblood, from Halifax across the Atlantic to the Azures on their way to Portugal. They are just arriving as we speak.
Mr. Speaker, it is also a place with a lot of great restaurants, including the Smoke House that Muriel Betsina just opened, which has its official opening next week; the Wildcat, the Waterfront, the Bistro, the Trappers Cabin, and Bullock's Fish Restaurant.
Mr. Speaker, I want to walk the talk when it comes to tourism, and this Saturday, to prove my support for tourism, I am the guest chef at the Wildcat Cafe. I invite any of you who want fine dining to come down there.
-- Laughter
I assure you I am well supervised and it will not become a health disaster. Thank you.
-- Applause