Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This does a great disservice to all Canadians, this move. It has the potential to diminish Canadian royalties and reduce jobs in Canada that would normally be available in the value-added industries like detailed sorting and valuation.
DIAND's Minister Jane Stewart department is responsible for northern development and as such, she is responsible to ensure we maximize our economic opportunities. Issues of interprovincial trade and NAFTA should have been flagged by the department a long time ago and agreements worked out with BHP and Dia Met before their permits were issued. As a matter of fact, this government, the Government of the NWT and this Cabinet raised the whole issue of diamond valuation and economic benefits with the federal government a long time ago, during discussions of what conditions companies would have to meet, before licenses would be issued.
The federal government did not pay any attention to our concerns and went ahead and issued licences without ensuring these economic issues were addressed. Now they realize they made a mistake. One, northerners will have to pay for very dearly.
It is important to note, Mr. Speaker, that the companies, especially BHP, have more than lived up to their obligations and are meeting their stated commitments. It is the feds who are repeatedly letting us down. The NWT stands to produce 10 percent of the world's diamonds, eventually. Ottawa will take $4.4 billion in royalties over 25 years. The NWT will only collect a very small fraction of this. Canada will be exporting jobs and economic development opportunities to other countries. There will be no lasting benefit from the diamond development for Canada, nor the NWT, out of the spin off benefits.
Minister Stewart and her team have to find a way to make sure that any future diamond valuation or sorting centre does stay in Canada and furthermore, that it does stay in the north. It would be helpful if the Minister would bother to have her staff honour their obligations to meet with those commitments are made with, instead of pulling them out, without warning or explanation.
The people of the north deserve better from Ottawa, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
--Applause