Thank you, Madam Chair. As a Minister I have become increasingly concerned that the federal government has yet to state a clear position to Canadians, to the public and certainly to this government on what its policy is in regard to diamonds. One of the things that need to be clarified, for instance, is in many African countries, they do ask that the rough diamonds be valuated, sorted for valuation purposes most of the time off-site and that some of the diamonds, not all of them, are available for sale in the
country. In some countries they also take some of the diamonds in kind, as royalty payments. This maximizes the economic benefits to the country and to the people in the vicinity. We are not exactly comfortable with the notion that perhaps there is a possibility that Canada may very well, for lack of attention and diligence in this issue, see Canadian diamonds, northern diamonds, flown direct to London and Antwerp. Rough diamonds that would then be sorted and sold in another country other than here. We have written to the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs and articulated that very concern and have asked if we can and we will meet with her on Monday. We will raise the concern and suggest some ways to remedy the situation if there is in fact no work being done to ensure that maximum economic benefits are exploited from the production of diamonds in this country. Thank you.