Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As my colleagues have observed, there are many areas of the department that we are asked to look at. I would like to focus on one area, the diamond industry. We have been subject to an interesting and unfortunate surge here in the Northwest Territories in the last five of six years, faced with two very distinct surges, booms if you will, in the mining sector and the upcoming oil and gas sector.
I do not want to suggest that one is better than the other, but I would like to look at the sustainability and the job quota that we can see over the long term from the diamond industry. With the announcement this week from the Jericho Developments which, although it is on the Nunavut side, I think will be relying very heavily on the Northwest Territories infrastructure to supply and build that mine, we are now looking at four very feasible projects.
I anticipate a life of 50 plus years for diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. The Minister suggested that this year, the diamond division of the department has four mandates. I wanted to support all of those. I think they are going in the right direction. I think they are going to have payoffs in the long run. However, I did want to ask the Minister a specific question. In his remarks, he referred to implementing a monitoring program for Northwest Territories diamond manufacturers. Could the Minister give us a bit more detail as to what he means by a monitoring program, and how is this going to create a value-added industry for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.