Mr. Speaker, the task force had a meeting planned for the latter part of, I believe January 9th in Ottawa, which is the time the ice storm had just occurred in the Ottawa/Montreal area. Consequently, the members of the task force, I believe, were not able to convene a meeting. In any case, we have expressed our disappointment with the federal Ministers because the task force has had at least from the federal side, the federal officials who were assigned to this task force appeared to have had their full brakes on as far as trying to expedite any business that should have taken place by the task force. We had originally agreed with Minister Martin, Minister Jane Stewart, to have an interim report to Ministers, that is Minister Todd and myself, to Minister Martin and Stewart by the middle of December, an initial report from this task force. Unfortunately, some of the federal officials decided that it was not a high priority and found reasons to reschedule meetings and basically slowed down any attempts to convene with some quick successive meetings to carry on the business that the task force was set up to do. It has been disappointing. We had hoped that some value will come of the task force and the reasons that we originally asked for it to be set up. The deputy minister, Joe Handley, is on tour with the Premier right now in South America and will be back on Saturday. I expect to meet with him to discuss the merits of continuing with this task force and exactly how much resources we should put to it, considering that federal members of the task force have indicated they thought an interim report of the task force was not possible at least until mid-March at the earliest. Thank you.
Stephen Kakfwi on Question 74-13(5): Diamond Task Force Update
In the Legislative Assembly on January 22nd, 1998. See this statement in context.
Return To Question 74-13(5): Diamond Task Force Update
Question 74-13(5): Diamond Task Force Update
Item 7: Oral Questions
January 21st, 1998
Page 272
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