Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal Ministers, Paul Martin and Jane Stewart, met with myself and the Finance Minister, Mr. Todd, last month in Ottawa. At that time we proposed, because time was of the essence and it was our impression that Canada and the federal government were not getting as substantive and thorough advice and information as they should regarding the emerging diamond industry here in Canada, that we should work together through a task force that would allow us to combine our resources and our efforts to prepare Canada and northern people for all the opportunities that can be identified and realized from the emerging diamond industry. To that end, they agreed to set up a task force to come up with a diamond strategy to look at development of a policy on diamonds for Canada, and looking at how we can maximize the economic benefits of the diamond industry for Canadians and for northern people.
Mr. Speaker, we drafted a first set of terms of reference and this week, the deputy minister, Mr. Joe Handley, is in Ottawa. The draft terms of reference have been accepted by the federal government, as far as we know, by the various federal departments. The first meeting of the task force is set for tomorrow morning with a following subsequent followup meeting to be held in the north in about two weeks time. Thank you.