Thank you for giving me some time, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, thank you to all the presenters. It's a very interesting discussion.
My question is for the tourism association, Beth Potter.
I represent the Northwest Territories and over half of the Northwest Territories is indigenous, so it was very important to us to see the Indigenous Tourism Association finally set up an office here in the Northwest Territories. I know, by your presentation, that they are part of your organization.
For us, they serve a very important purpose. They play a really important role in the north, and it's a different role from most of the other agencies that deal with tourism, because we have different challenges here in the Northwest Territories—and the Yukon and Nunavut, for that matter—but we have huge potential. Our communities are small. Getting professionals is very difficult, and getting consultants or accountants to deal with the small communities and the people who live there is a real challenge.
I find that a lot of our operators struggle to get even insurance or permits, things of that nature, where you have to go to the regional centre to get them, and the Indigenous Tourism Association plays a big role in helping them and guiding them.
This year we've seen the Indigenous Tourism Association in the budget; it got money. I want to ask you if you feel that is something we should be encouraging to do better, to get more money for indigenous tourism, so they can have more staff on the ground and more people to help things move along and move forward.