Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My question is for the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. I represent the Northwest Territories, and up until the pandemic hit, tourism was the sector that was growing by leaps and bounds. We had aurora borealis viewing. People were coming from all over the world. Our hotels were full. Sometimes you couldn't get a room in any of the hotels. New hotels were being built. The airlines were full, totally booked. Restaurants were full. Then the pandemic hit and it really took its toll.
In our discussions with the tourism sector, what we talked about was the vaccine being the key to unlocking travel and getting tourism back to the Northwest Territories, and to the north for that matter.
Now, in this part of the country, in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut, everybody who wants to be vaccinated is going to be by the end of April. However, now we're realizing that it's really not going to make much of a difference for the tourism industry because our borders are still going to stay locked and restrictions will still be in place for travel because of what's going on in the south.
Would you agree that the recovery of the tourism industry is going to be based largely on the rollout of the vaccine, getting everybody vaccinated in Canada, and for us especially up in the western provinces? It's really going to be a challenge to get tourism going until the last province gets everybody vaccinated.