Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The negotiations with the diamond companies, are we looking to achieve the same sort of levels with new diamond mines as we have with BHP? Perhaps at the same time could I find out -- I had asked the Premier but never got an answer -- what percentage of the rough diamonds is BHP making available to northern manufacturers right now?

The deputy minister.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Further on in that description of the work of the diamond projects, there is note that one of their activities is development of a program to address regulation of the new industry. What are we talking about here when we talk about regulation?

The deputy minister.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand the need for the government to ensure that we do not have conflict diamonds coming through our facilities here, so we can prove to the world that the diamonds we have are not blood diamonds or conflict diamonds. I guess I am having trouble understanding why we would be concerned about the standards. There are already international standards for diamonds. A jewelry appraiser can look at a diamond and say that a diamond is a VS1 E-colour, or F-colour or G-colour, with a good cut or a bad cut. Why are we worried about what the standards are? Manufacturers have to compete in the world market. Surely all we should be worried about is demonstrating that we do not have conflict diamonds here.

The deputy minister.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I remain unconvinced that quality assurance is something a government needs to be involved in. I think that is taken care of in the market place quite easily. I would hope we would be spending our money on far more important things, like proper monitoring systems and being able to prove our diamonds are clean, rather than working at that.

I am also concerned about the next part of that phrase, which says we are developing programs to address the need for an efficient polished distribution system. Good heavens, that is what diamond wholesalers do. They distribute diamonds. Why are we trying to set up our own? That is what it sounds like we are trying to do here. Why would we want to have anything to do with the distribution system? Hopefully we are not going to try to compete with De Beers or any of the other giants that are out already distributing polished diamonds. Why are we even talking about it?

The deputy minister. Mr. Bob McLeod.

Excuse me, Mr. Dent, I have three other Members on the list. If you want, I will put you at the bottom of the list. Next I have Ms. Lee, Mr. Braden and Mr. Lafferty. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a question on the funding for the NWT Business Credit Corporation and the NWT Development Corporation. This is a similar question to the one that was asked by Mr. Dent. I just became aware only recently that market disruption is not even an important criteria in considering government loans. I can understand that these are people or businesses that have been rejected by mainstream banks and that they are charged interest rates that are higher because of that risk and so on, but that still does not make it right, I do not think, to have someone come with a proposal for a business venture in a community, especially a community like Yellowknife, where there is a free market. If someone was to come in and say they want to open a restaurant and they cannot get money from a bank and they need $100,000, for the government to give that -- I do not know how that comes into stimulating economic development and employment in the North.

How does that create new jobs? All that would do is replace an existing market, especially when the existing businesses have built up their own equity. They have mortgaged their own houses or whatever to raise their money, and then for somebody to come in and come up with an idea for a business that is already in existence, and they get their leg up through taxpayers' money. They get money from the government so that you open a business and undercut the businesses that are already in existence. How does that create new jobs and new opportunities?

President of the NWT Development Corporation, Mr. Koe.

Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Going by the answer that Mr. Koe just provided, I am really then speaking mainly about the work of the Business Credit Corporation, and that is fine. I would just like the Minister to pay attention to -- I am not saying that he is not, but let us think about this. We do not have enough money to do everything we need to do. We are always saying that. There is not enough money to go around, especially for small communities. I just travelled to communities through the special committee. When we were in Tsiigehtchic, for example, other than the co-op store, there was no place to go for coffee. There is a coffee shop there but it is not really open because it is not really viable to run that business.

We were also in Aklavik. We went there much earlier than the meeting time because we wanted to spend some time there, and the big-town Yellowknife girl that I am, I learned that there is no place to go in Aklavik for coffee or food. It is a good thing we had hosts who were able to provide us with food, so we had something to eat before we had a 7:30 meeting.

I would like to see $100,000 or $200,000 of BCC money being spent on giving some business people in Tsiigehtchic or Aklavik or some other communities where there are no local businesses like that and create jobs. If it is never going to be a money-making enterprise and no private person wants to get into that, it could be a government operation where you give ongoing $100,000 a year or something so that Tsiigehtchic will have a coffee shop where they could offer some kind of a simple menu or something.

Compare that with Yellowknife. Does Yellowknife need someone to open a restaurant to serve pizza? There is a lot of competition for pizza and Chinese food, or whatever restaurant you want in Yellowknife. It could be another coffee shop or whatever.

What is the point of this program? I think if you look at it, it says to stimulate economic development and employment. Why do you not do that for communities that do not have it, not in market communities where there is competition already?

You can say that free competition is good, but as long as everyone is on an equal playing field. If some people get government money to run their business, you go out of business and you forfeit on a loan, that is fine because it is the government that is taking the risk. I was talking to Mr. Dent. Somebody could borrow $2 million and set up a radio station. I am just trying to give a real life example, and you say that they are borrowing at a higher cost and they have to make a go of it, but if you spend $2 million to run somebody out of business and they cannot pay back, sorry...well, we are not doing any good.

I am really surprised that we do not care about market disruption. Free competition is good, but if you are injecting taxpayers' money and put another person who had their own sweat equity and their own investment in line and put them out of business, the government is not doing its job. That is not the government's job.

Mr. Minister.