Bob McLeod

The Government of Ontario looked at establishing a diamond bourse so that smaller jewellery companies could find a place to buy diamonds. As far as I know, the report has not been submitted as of yet. As soon as that’s available, we’ll make sure that it’s available to all the Members of the Assembly. We will be giving a briefing to the standing committee next week on the diamond policy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that we are the diamond capital of North America, but we don’t have a monopoly on diamonds. We recognized that other provinces and territories would be finding diamonds and developing their diamonds as well.

It’s been ten years since we had the good fortune of having diamonds discovered in the Northwest Territories. We are now undertaking a policy review of diamonds and will be looking forward to getting input from the Members. We are in the process of developing a discussion paper which will help guide us in our review.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform this Assembly that the Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation, in partnership with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Aboriginal Business Canada, will be hosting the third biennial Northern Economic Development Practitioners Conference in Yellowknife from December 1 to 4, 2008.

The theme for NEDP 2008 is Building Northern Capacity — an excellent fit with this Assembly’s goals and priorities for the development of our economy and our people.

Northern economic development...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Draft NWT Hydro Strategy.

Document 103-16(2), Draft NWT Hydro Strategy, tabled.

Mr. Speaker, we do have the Community Harvesters’ Assistance Program, which can be used for deferring some of the costs of living off the land. I do know that the last time there were any changes to the program was at least three or four governments ago. So I will be quite prepared to review this area.

Mr. Speaker, our government is tasked with balancing our efforts to address immediate energy challenges with the responsibility for investing in longer term energy solutions. Since its release last year the NWT energy plan has been the framework that has guided our work and investment to meet these two key challenges.

At the appropriate time this afternoon, as the Chair of the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, I will be tabling the draft NWT Hydro Strategy. This is the next step in our government’s comprehensive and strategic approach to energy planning.

Mr. Speaker, the growing impacts...

Mr. Speaker, I do know that in the past we have worked with the community of Tu Nedhe to develop a community development strategy. There are lots of resources around Tu Nedhe in areas such as wildlife, forestry and so on, so we’d be quite prepared to work with the community to develop such a strategy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has recognized the importance of traditional harvesting activities for some time now, and we do have a number of programs in place. Over the course of the past ten years or so we also had the Western Harvesters’ Assistance Program, which is a $15 million matching program that is available to every aboriginal government organization in the Northwest Territories. We do also have the Harvesters’ Assistance Program, a total of $1.5 million, which includes funding for local wildlife committees, Community Harvesters’ Assistance...

Mr. Speaker, the conference next week also provides aboriginal businesses with an opportunity to interact with aboriginal businesses from all across Canada. That’s one of the main benefits. All large development projects and some success stories and best practices will be shared.

Another very important part of the conference, which was a highlight last year, was the youth component whereby youth representatives from every region participated. They were kind of a highlight of the conference because of their enthusiasm and new ideas.

Mr. Speaker, in my statement today I would like to highlight the NWT Aboriginal Business Conference, which will be held next week in Yellowknife, October 14 through 16. As Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment I appreciate how this annual forum can contribute to the development of small businesses.

The theme of this year’s conference is Establishing Economic Cooperation. I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the staff of the Denendeh Development Corporation, who organizes this annual event. This year they expect up to 200 participants in attendance at this conference.

The keynote...