Thank you so much, and thank you for allowing me the time.
My family is from Newfoundland. My mom was born there. Every year my grandfather goes home. It's kind of the interesting story of coming to Ontario to find work. This is how we ended up in Ontario.
My question is around tourism. Again, it's more to have the background. This is just a personal experience, so I want to know if it's actually the reality on the ground. For example, when my grandfather goes back, he stays with family, but he can't rent a car, because everything is sold out. We're from Upper Island Cove, a smaller community. At first I didn't believe that he couldn't get a car. I thought he was being a little dramatic, so I went online, and you cannot rent a car in the summer months.
In terms of the opportunity for tourism, certainly, I could see it just from my personal experience. The question is really around the seasonality of it. From what I understand from my colleagues and from the province, it's hard for tourism companies and businesses to really invest in things like, for example, rental cars. I use this as an example only because of my experience that it's not worth it to them or profitable enough to have that type of investment all year long when, really, tourism is seasonal.
I would see agencies like yours helping these companies. How can you best position these companies to take that opportunity, to have the infrastructure there when the high tourism season hits?