Mr. Speaker, I want to put some thoughts on the record. As a downtown Toronto member, I think it is important that people realize we are just as sensitive to these issues as members who come from the region.
The greater Toronto area in the last two and a half years has been blessed with one of the most exciting economies the country has seen in the last 20 to 30 years. Having said that, we should make sure that some of the reasons our economy is booming are applicable and that the opportunities exist in other parts of Canada. It is important to examine some of the good luck that Toronto has had and see if it can apply to other parts of the country.
I want to start with the easiest sector of all, and the fastest growing sector in the world, the tourism industry. Anyone who has travelled to Cape Breton knows that it is an absolute slam dunk. There are all kinds of instant tourism possibilities in that great part of Nova Scotia.
The member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough talked about his community needing work immediately. In that particular sector, with just a small portion of that $70 million, we could mount a very serious tourism campaign, not just for those who want to travel within Canada, domestic tourism, but we could target areas of the United States. Overnight we could enhance and create jobs in the community with bed and breakfast enterprises and tour companies.
That is my first point. I raise it because believe it or not, in the last three years one of the fastest growing sectors in Toronto has been tourism. It affects everything, not just hotels and motels, but restaurants and all the other subsets under the tourism rubric.
Another area that is exploding in Canada, and not just in Toronto but in Vancouver and Montreal and which has potential in Atlantic Canada and Cape Breton, is the motion picture industry. I am sure most members saw The National last night or the night before. The motion picture industry in Canada is one of our most rapidly growing sectors of the economy. The preferences that exist right across the country to attract and grow that sector are amazing. This is something where instant opportunity can be created in Cape Breton. Sometimes we are so close to the problems that we do not realize some of the advantages of the natural assets we have around us. That sector could be utilized immediately.
These are ideas where we do not have to wait. The premier of Nova Scotia, the industry minister or the heritage minister can make instant requests of people in the motion picture industry. They can tell them of the preference package under the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, to take a look at what Cape Breton Island is all about and use it as a site for shooting motion pictures. Those are instant jobs. They are highly paid and good solid jobs, not minimum wage jobs. They are skilled jobs and semi-skilled jobs. History will show that once people are exposed to a region like Cape Breton, they will come back for repeat business.
Another area is information technology. There is not a part of our country that cannot take advantage of the opportunities within information technology and of what we have in terms of the educational thrust in Cape Breton and the whole province of Nova Scotia. There is absolutely no way we could miss if part of that extra $70 million for special projects in Cape Breton, the Devco divestiture, could be targeted toward information technology including computer assembly and e-commerce. These are all lay downs in my mind.
Interestingly enough, because of the way the information highway has changed the world, the people of Cape Breton Island can have as much opportunity on the Internet as the people in downtown Toronto.
Our responsibility in the House is not to stand up and be anti everything. We should not be a coalition of antis here. We have to deal in hope. I recognize that there are people right now who are in pain and who have lost their jobs. One cannot imagine the slap on dignity when one does not have work. But at the same time, with money ready to roll in those various sectors, if we put positive energy into this right away, some things could start right away. If we were more positive in our action on Cape Breton Island, we could create a momentum. That is what our responsibility is in the House.