Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement is also in regard to diamond evaluating and sorting. Mr. Speaker, I was shocked and appalled this morning as I drove to work to hear a CBC radio interview with Mr. Lazarovich with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Mr. Lazarovich is the federal official in charge of developing the proposed amendments to the Canada Mining Regulations. For months, I have heard speculation and fears expressed on the part of business leaders and politicians that, left to their own devices, the diamond companies would not do right by the north in terms of regional and community economic benefits.
Things like, "if they are going to fly over us, leave the diamonds in the ground" and even some threats of barricading winter access roads. It seems that our fears with respect to things like the understanding of northern issues and sensitivity to the desperate need for economic growth in the north may have been misdirected at the diamond industry and perhaps should more appropriately be directed at the federal government responsible for northern development.
After hearing this interview, it is obvious that senior staff in the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development are the ones who need a lesson in northern development for northerners. If we cannot count on the federal government to support us in a bid for more than limited sorting of diamonds for the purpose of assessing federal royalties, we really do have our work cut out for us. If the federal government has the power to determine where the remainder of the sorting takes place, but chooses not to, they are derelict in their duties. If Mr. Lazarovich sees that decision as "more of a private boardroom decision", I have to ask in whose private boardroom does he see that decision being made? In the boardroom of people who could sleep quite comfortably at night knowing that they are shipping our diamonds and our jobs offshore?
The same government that is reducing federal transfer payments in anticipation of the north becoming more economically and fiscally self reliant had better take a more responsible approach to this industry, which is the largest single potential opportunity to affect the north's economy in many years. Again, along with my colleague for Yellowknife South, I am asking for a meeting to be convened in the north, with northern leaders and the Minister responsible for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, which will afford Ms Stewart the opportunity to come clean with the federal government's position relating to diamond mining in the north. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.