Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, want to bring attention to this. It’s an astonishing amount of money; $1.84 million. It’s called forced growth for utility and maintenance costs for a brand-new building. It’s $1.8 million for one building. This is amazing that something as complex and sophisticated as a brand-new hospital and there aren’t many kinds of buildings, Mr. Chairman, that are that advanced and complicated that this amount of money to run the place can slip through the cracks. Is there no fallback for this government in terms of the consulting or the planning or the budgeting that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I take it from the Minister’s answer that we still don’t have an arrangement with De Beers that we have any confidence in. Respecting that some of these negotiations are in confidence, I’d like the Minister to see if he could give us some more sense of comfort and security that indeed De Beers does believe in helping to invest in the northern economy. Are they at least onside with that principle? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon will be for Mr. Bell, the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, on the status of our diamond industry. It was an interesting turn of events earlier this year where, I think it was in the spring, Mr. Speaker, we saw the release of the National Diamond Strategy, but also in short order a response from the mining industry that challenged some of the things that we’re doing up here. One of the specific ones was where the mining industry was claiming that our investment in the cutting and polishing industry was short-term...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are fortunate in the Northwest Territories to have an abundance of natural beauty and natural resources. The challenge that we face on a daily basis is how to manage these.

Some 10 years ago, Members of this House had the fortitude and the foresight to see that we must receive a greater benefit from these resources. Specific to that issue, Mr. Speaker, was the diamond resource. Who would have thought that, 10 years ago, Yellowknife would be the diamond capital of North America today with a world-class cutting and polishing industry developed here employing about 160...

So, Mr. Chairman, the answer is we have essentially no recourse. There is no one we can go back to accept that some of us may be involved in the hit that everybody is going to experience or has already experienced because of higher fuel costs, but the volumes and the slippage on this one are really quite remarkable.

Mr. Chairman, I guess we will move on, but I would like to leave a comment and I relate this to a discussion I had with a Yellowknife architect awhile ago. When it comes to putting up a building, there is a bit of a shift or quite a large shift now in terms of the planning and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to confirmation of De Beers’ participation. This is something that, I think, through the messages we’re sending here, that we must not entertain a significant development here that is not going to result in a net benefit for the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, on the broader scale of the National Diamond Strategy, could the Minister outline just what benefit is coming to the Northwest Territories from our involvement at the national level? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the success, as I’ve referred to in my statement, was the decision made 10 years ago by this government to stipulate, to demand that a portion of the production be reserved for cutting and polishing in the Northwest Territories. Here we have a successful or the start of a successful industry. Now, those deals were set up, I believe, with the people at BHP’s Ekati mine and with the Rio Tinto folks at Diavik. What is the status, Mr. Speaker, of the agreements with Aber, which is the third producer, and with the De Beers mine yet to come at Snap Lake? Do we have a...

Mr. Speaker, thank you. Resource development in the Northwest Territories must grow and expand in a sustainable and diversified way. If future generations are to have a legacy from these current developments, then this government and this House must continue to show the fortitude and the foresight to demand a devolution deal that recognizes a rightful share of the value staying here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds very progressive. I know one of things that was of concern when we were putting this bill together was the ability across all the communities to put this into effect. Can the Minister give us some sense that, indeed, all of our communities will be able to act on at least some part of this new initiative? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize that today is the first day of Waste Reduction Week in Canada. The majority of the people here in the NWT would probably claim to be environmentally friendly. It is something that certainly fits our lifestyle and our image, but I am wondering, Mr. Speaker, if we really looked at ourselves, do we really demonstrate that our personal lifestyles and our choices and our habits prove this? I look around this Assembly, Mr. Speaker; there is a lot of horsepower here, but there is a lot of horsepower out in the parking lot, too. You should go and have a look...