Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, at the risk of repeating myself, I've had the opportunity to be on that highway and be in the community, and this is truly a gem for the Northwest Territories tourism industry. It should be -- I mean, it's a gem. And, you know, it would be such a wonderful opportunity to see it flooded with tourism but with the facilities there to properly receive the tourists and to maximize the opportunity for the community.
So my understanding is that the visitors centre, albeit small, is open. I agree there was no -- there wasn't quite the flash opening that any of us had perhaps hoped for, but this summer certainly wasn't what anyone expected it to be. There is right now a secondment from one of the ITI staff to the community of Tuktoyaktuk to help really vision what a bigger picture for tourism might be. For example, the opportunity for a culture centre in Tuktoyaktuk, which I have an impression that the federal government has taken some interest in as well. So I think there is more to come but, as I was just saying with Whati, it's -- it really ideally should be the community that says, here's our vision and idea. ITI can then provide some of the supports, whether through, again, tourism funding and/or with liaising with the federal government and being a kind of cochampion to the federal government. So I think there's a lot of opportunity. I agree. There's nothing in the capital plan because there's not -- you know, again, the tourism centre right now is opened. The RV park, again, too, Madam Chair, I don't have an answer on the RV park. I think there was some disagreement on location and that involved the federal government lands location. So quite a few things not that I can fix with the capital plan here, Madam Chair. But it's one that I hope this is a discussion that continues for whomever's back in this House. Again, my view is that Tuktoyaktuk should be really, again, an absolute gem.
I will one last note, Madam Chair, tourism numbers were big this year notwithstanding the fires along the Dempster, notwithstanding the challenges. Numbers were up already, and they'll hopefully continue to go up, but they're going to need proper resources. I don't disagree with that. Thank you.