Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for ITI and are a follow-up to my Member’s statement. As mentioned in my statement, it appears as though former GNWT employees have taken the lessons learned as part of the NWT secondary diamond industry and are applying them in other jurisdictions. These southern operations appear to be successful. If this knowledge works in other jurisdictions, why does the NWT secondary industry continue to struggle while others grow and what is the Minister’s department doing to revitalize the NWT cutting and polishing industry? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of ITI, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I heard two questions there. I think we have no problem with the Canadian diamond industry growing. We think it’s to the benefit of the Northwest Territories, and certainly with a strong diamond sector, we can change the definition of a Canadian diamond, which will be to our benefit. We don’t believe that we are falling behind, but there are some challenges.
Everybody knows that it’s much more difficult and more costly to operate up here in the Northwest Territories. Secondly, the provinces where these operations are being conducted, Ontario, Saskatchewan, they are provinces. We are a Territory. They collect royalties and they reinvest it in the diamond industry, whereas our royalties go to the federal government who have not seen fit at all to invest in the diamond industry.
Another factor is we have a diamond policy. A large part of our diamond policy, which is the provision of loan guarantees, has been eliminated. So we have undertaken a review of our diamond sector and we will be presenting our recommendations with regards to what we should be doing to revitalize and improve our diamond manufacturing.
I should point out, also, that we do have three manufacturing facilities that are still, compared to other jurisdictions, a leader in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to thank the Minister for that response. I’m glad to hear things are happening and things are being done to revitalize this industry.
Earlier this week, I met with a constituent who happens to be a former diamond cutter in one of the plants in Yellowknife. When laid off, due to downsizing last year, he and his family decided to stay in Yellowknife in hopes that he would be able to return to his diamond cutting and polishing position once the market returned. Now he has been contacted by Embee to go to work for their factory in Saskatchewan. He tells me that 13 families are considering leaving the Northwest Territories to work for Mr. Botha in Prince Albert. Thirteen families are roughly 39 people at $22,000 per person. This means that at least $858,000 of federal transfers will leave with them. This affects Northerners, all Northerners. What is the Minister going to do to help expedite this revitalization that I hear you talking about of the local industry in the hopes that these 13 families don’t have to leave the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Certainly Canada is a free country and people can move to where they want to live. I think the diamond cutting family, if I could call it that, has fit in very well into Yellowknife and is a very important part of the community. So I would hate to see that happen. But I think on our part the best way to keep these people in Yellowknife is to have a strong secondary diamond manufacturing and polishing industry, and I think the best way is to ensure that 100 percent of our NWT diamond allocation is bought and cut and polished here in the Northwest Territories and that’s what we are working towards, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I agree with him. Anybody can move and live anywhere they want within this country and I agree that Yellowknife is a great place. My question was more specific. It’s what are we going to do -- and I understand a lot is being done -- but what are we going to do to expedite this revitalization? What is the Minister proposing now? Are there meetings taking place? What’s happening to revitalize this industry in the Northwest Territories today? Because people who want to stay -- and I stress want to be here in the Northwest Territories -- are leaving. What are we doing to revitalize? What are we doing to expedite the revitalization? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but I think the main thing we want to do right now is we want to make sure that all of the factories are operating. Diamonds have been produced in the Northwest Territories for 10 years now. We have learned a lot over the 10 years and we think that we can find ways in working with the manufacturers so that their operations can become more effective and efficient, and, hopefully, we expect that they will become more feasible. So we feel that there are things we can improve upon. We can become more effective so we can move faster. We can have a little more flexibility so that the cutters and polishers can have a more feasible operation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned that diamond cutting and polishing has been in the Northwest Territories for 10 years. That’s true. Unfortunately, I don’t believe our diamond policy has changed in 10 years. I understand that about four years ago we actually did some significant reductions within the Department of ITI in the diamond division. I am curious who in the government, who in the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, is actually moving forward on this diamond policy and looking at reviewing it if our division was mostly gutted, for lack of a better word, and when can we expect to see some improvements or modifications or modernization of our diamond policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I wouldn’t call the diamond division as being gutted. We still have our marketing side of the Diamond Program and the responsibility for the diamonds was factored into our mineral section. So we have recently focussed more of the diamond file to an associate director position. We do have a proposed revised diamond policy, and our expectation is that we would brief standing committees very shortly, with a view to coming forward and having the policy approved once we have received the input of the committees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
