Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for South Shore for his question and also his keen interest in a sector of our economy that has been sadly neglected over the last 10 to 15 years.
The tourism industry is a sector of our economy which, after automotive, employs more Canadians than any other sector. This government has made a serious commitment to not only maintaining but virtually quadrupling the tourism budget.
We did not just quadruple the budget, we also gave guidelines and said to the Canadian tourism commission that we wanted this money to be levered, joint ventured. In other words, it is not Industry Canada and the tourism team going out and doing work on their own. It is this commission which is made up of private sector experts from the tourism industry from all over Canada. The Minister of Industry appointed these people on February 1.
I have to say to the member for South Shore that this is a new commission and no doubt there will be some glitches until we get it operating perfectly. If the member, in his community of South Shore, is having difficulty in partnering or accessing his tourism operators with the commission, I would invite him to come to the House of Commons industry committee. About two weeks from now the executive of the Canadian Tourism Commission will appear before the committee. We will deal with the overall plan and objectives but, more important, we will deal with the specific concerns and the specific challenges the member for South Shore raised this evening.
I do not want to suggest that at the moment the commission has all of the answers. It is a new commission. It is a new experiment where we are partnering with the private sector.
However I invite the member to the committee. His specific concerns will be addressed. There is great hope for this sector putting Canadians back to work, which is the number one responsibility of the government.