Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and so does the rest of the House.
1997 was a banner year for tourism in Atlantic Canada. All four Atlantic provinces enjoyed double digit growth. Prince Edward Island led the way with 60% over the previous year in the number of visitors.
In addition, the House will be interested to know that tourism generated $2.5 billion worth of revenues in Atlantic Canada, of which $440 million was returned to the province and to the federal government in the way of taxes.
There are 96,000 people involved in tourism. This is why—