Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while reducing the taxes to small business, again I say, a darn good thing, but, Mr. Speaker, we have to make a solid point on this. You have to be getting contracts in order to have something to deduct in order to make that two percent reduction worth anything.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t have to go through the statistics I said the other day, as well as just earlier, that the Minister does monitor through the registry of the sole sourcing and the sourcing that goes south at 92 percent for Stanton. Would the Minister consider options such as maybe replacing the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today will be for the Minister of Industry, Tourist and Investment. This morning I received an e-mail regarding the potential dropping of the BIP, Mr. Speaker, and it appears several small businesses are concerned, in the e-mail that I received. It looks like it may be replaced by a two percent reduction, from this e-mail that I have before me. So, Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is, how is this idea being floated out to northern businesses about the potential dropping of the BIP and replacing it with a small two percent reduction...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My comments will be around sort of the global perspective at this time. I’m personally concerned about focus. I’ve brought up, on a number of times, my personal concern that the Housing Corporation has an information systems program to do housing maintenance. I’ve said a number of times, for example, that this is the type of program that could be bought off the shelf at a large computer store. I’ve raised this concern a number of times because I’m concerned that we’re worried about inputting data and whatnot into programs when we should be handing our employees...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of ITI could let me know what is the problem of possibly just calling up the president of that particular diamond mine that we are referring to and asking what the problem is. We shouldn’t be choking our local diamond mines with the facts that you can buy diamonds in Antwerp cheaper than you can buy 300 kilometres north. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister look at placing a phone call so we can giddy-up on this problem and make sure we solve it quicker, rather than later? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the owners of Arslanian Diamonds were in town last week and they had a chance to meet with the Ministers of ITI and Finance. My question for the Minister of Finance is now that they have seen the number and the proof that this company can buy diamonds from Antwerp cheaper than they can buy them 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, what is the Minister planning to specifically do with this challenge? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I won’t have a question, but I do have a clarification. I’m speaking about when we lend public money and I think public money follows a different rule than private money. I appreciate that the Minister distinguishes that we use some of the public money to leverage private money, but I still think that because it’s the government’s money, it’s the people’s money. We can still play by our rule, which is the disclosure rule. We may not see eye to eye and then again we may never see eye to eye on that point, but it’s how I feel and I feel that it’s very important in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned or alluded to the fact that it’s an historical problem. I would like to hear that the Minister is working to put this in writing, so we can make sure at least a fair premium is charged in recognition of where we are in comparison to where Antwerp is. The diamond mines are on our doorstep, Mr. Speaker, yet they cost more. I would like to hear what the options are that the Minister is going to look at if the diamond mine that we are talking about doesn’t step up to the plate and supply diamonds at a fair and reasonable price to our...

Mr. Speaker, I asked my question to the Minister of ITI. I said Arslanian Cutting Works spoke to the Ministers of ITI and Finance, but my question was directed to the Minister of ITI. They can do whatever they want with it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about the diamond cutting and polishing industry which provides 155 jobs here in the NWT. By the government’s estimates, the current cutting and polishing facilities contribute $9 million to the GNWT’s GDP. When they are in full production, it will be $20 million some day.

In order to attract and support value added industry, this government, in the past, created an MOU with the diamond mines to supply rough. However, the system is not working, Mr. Speaker, as it was originally envisioned. I have been told by one Yellowknife company that runs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really appreciate the Minister pointing that out because that lead well into my next question. The Minister said that there are significant contracts. I will bow to his expertise. Yes, there are very significant contracts that probably do need to go to sole source. But, Mr. Speaker, out of the 75 contracts awarded that are over $5,000 on this tabled document, 58 of those are sole sourced. That means 17 went out to any type of competitive bid. That is telling you that 77 percent of these contracts of over $5,000 went to sole source. Mr. Speaker, how can we...