The honourable Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have heard that it is around 10 percent at the rough level myself, and in the area of 8 to 10 percent at the retail level. Yesterday, the Minister said there was a very high premium. I guess I would argue that 10 percent is not that much of a premium. If in fact it turns out to be 20 percent, then that might be significant, but I have never heard that number.

I was trying to find out where the Minister was coming from when he said a very high premium. I would suspect the Minister would have to agree with me that if a manufacturer is paying 10 percent higher for the rough, and they can only command 10 percent higher on the goods that are manufactured because of the premium, obviously the excise tax is going to be putting a squeeze on the spread between what the manufacturer pays for the raw materials and what they have at the end in polished goods to sell.

What I am looking for is a commitment that the Minister and the department understand the significance of the 10 percent excise tax. I know the Minister has told this House that he is prepared to work on this issue. I would just like to confirm that, and also that the department and the diamonds projects people will put a significant amount of energy into this area.

Mr. Chairman, what I am really trying to suggest is that they reexamine their approach. I would be far more interested in seeing them spend money lobbying Ottawa, working out the arguments as to why Ottawa should look at the Northwest Territories as an excise tax free zone and advance that, rather than worrying about diamond regulation.

Let's monitor to make sure that we can prove that the diamonds are clean, that they are not blood diamonds. Prove there are not conflict diamonds going through any of our operations here and then let's try and make the playing field as flat as possible for our manufacturers in comparison to their competition across the world.

Let's not worry so much about the actual marketing. Let's do the certificates, but leave the marketing to the diamond companies and let us work on the tax area. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Could I remind Members to keep their side conversations down? It is hard to hear the Minister answering the questions. Just to respect the Members who are asking questions and getting a response back from the Minister. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to hear the Minister commit to working on the excise tax issue. In talking to people in the Northwest Territories, both from the mining and from the manufacturing side, I have heard very little support for us moving forward with the act, so I hope the Minister will keep that in mind as we are going along here.

I think he is right. As more and more diamonds are found in Canada, it may become more of an issue to the federal government, but I hope we are going to work very quickly on this and very aggressively on the excise tax issue because again, our cost of operation is much higher here than it probably would be in Saskatchewan. If we can get our businesses established first, they have a leg up. I would hope we would work at this quite aggressively. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Any further comments? We are on page 11-17, resource management and economic development, budget summary, operations expense, total operations expense, $35,597,000.

Resource management and economic development, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $652,000.

Resource management and economic development, grants and contributions, contributions. We will go on to page 11-23, total contributions, $11,010,000. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask for some clarification on activity around the West Kitikmeot Slave Study. There is a line on page 11-23 noting a grant of $349,000. My understanding, and this is where I would like the clarification, is that this study is being sunsetted or wound or closed down. Could the Minister offer some information about the status of the West Kitikmeot Slave Study? Thank you.

The deputy minister, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Mr. Braden.

Thank you. I take that as a confirmation that the study project itself is closing, but there may be a reprofile into a biophysical study regarding the pipeline. I support that general direction. I know we have a lot of ground to cover so that we understand the impacts of a pipeline, but perhaps I could ask, Mr. Chairman, for a bit more detail on the nature of that biophysical study. Thank you.

The deputy minister, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I support that work and that initiative. I am wondering if the department would be able to indicate, as a cost-shared program with the Government of Canada, industry, and aboriginal and environmental organizations, are we looking at matching dollars here? To what degree are the other partners going to contribute to the value of this work? Thank you.