Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of ITI. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I spoke of the fact we have had diamond mining in the Northwest Territories now for over ten years. I feel it’s long overdue that we take a look at our policy, our objectives and a strategy to deal with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. As we see other jurisdictions across the country — Saskatchewan, Ontario and perhaps Quebec — developing potential diamond mines, there’s a great risk that these other jurisdictions are going to pass us by.
The first question I’d have for the Minister is: why can’t the Government of the Northwest Territories get access to the 10 per cent of rough, and why does it need to be 10 per cent? Why can’t we look at even 15 per cent or 20 per cent and set up a diamond exchange here in Yellowknife instead of Antwerp or London?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With regard to access to diamonds, since the diamonds were first discovered the diamond industry has been one of the big success stories for the Northwest Territories. We’re now third in the world in production of diamonds, behind Russia and Botswana. We’re even ahead of South Africa. Part of the issue is that we are a territory, so the federal government owns the resources.
The problem we had as a government was how to receive benefits from the diamond industry itself. The government of the day was able to successfully negotiate with the diamond companies, which was unprecedented at the time. Since then, we’ve seen that other sovereign countries have started to follow the process we’ve been taking.
The industry provides 10 per cent of the allocations for manufacturing in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, my fear, again, is that we don’t have — and I know the previous government got rid of it — the Diamond Division at ITI. I’m not sure exactly why that happened. Here we are on the verge of other jurisdictions developing mines, and we need to review where we’re going with diamonds and with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. Again, I don’t understand why we can’t get that 10 per cent and then divvy it up amongst local cut-and-polish plants here in Yellowknife, and we could also open up a diamond exchange.
Once you have the diamonds, people will come. There are examples of this across the world: New York, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, London. If we don’t do this, it’s going to end up in Toronto, and that would be a shame. If there is a diamond exchange in Canada, it belongs here in the Northwest Territories.
The Government of the Northwest Territories’ diamond policy framework was established in June of 1999. This policy facilitated the development of a diamond manufacturing industry in the Northwest Territories. Certainly, the policy needs to be reviewed and updated. As a government we will be reviewing the current strategy. We are quite prepared to look at the suggestions that have been made by the Member and work very closely with the standing committee so we can improve and update our diamond policy.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with the Minister and the department on developing the strategy and reviewing the policies that are out there.
Yes, we are third in the world in terms of production. I was a city councillor here in Yellowknife in the late ’90s, when the gold mining was falling out and the diamond mines came in. Diamond mining does add a tremendous amount to the economy here in the Northwest Territories. We can’t underestimate that, but I do believe we should be getting and receiving more. The federal government doesn’t want to come to the plate in terms of resource-revenue sharing.
The next question I’d like to ask the Minister is: if the federal government isn’t going to address resource-revenue sharing, will the government entertain an effort to take an equity position in resource development, specifically in diamond mining?
An equity position in a diamond facility is certainly something we’re prepared to look at. We know other provinces have done that in different sectors, and this is an area we can look at. I believe it would have to involve stakeholders in the diamond industry, but this is something we are prepared to look at.
We’re prepared to look at any options that would improve and increase the benefits to the Northwest Territories. One of our primary objectives is to see the allocation for the Northwest Territories being fully utilized in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With other jurisdictions moving forward — and I mentioned Saskatchewan with Fort à la Corne and the Ontario Victor Diamond Project in northern Ontario — time is of the essence here. I don’t think we can wait another year before we develop a strategy and a plan and policies on where this government is going to go.
I’d like to ask the Minister: what is the strategy in terms of a timeline to address policy issues surrounding diamond mining in the Northwest Territories and the government’s role in that?
We will be working in the next few months or so to lay out our approach to how we will be undertaking this review and how we will be laying it out over the next year. My plan is to take this approach and discuss it further with the standing committee.
I should also point out that we’ve been working very closely with other jurisdictions that have diamonds, and we’ve been able to share the benefit of our expertise with our sister or brother diamond-producing provinces. I really think that with this review we will be able to take a very creative look at the way we deal with diamonds in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
