Yes. We worked with the Minister of Finance on this and perhaps we should have known that this was an issue and might have been there and lobbied, but we weren't there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of questions based on the Minister's opening remarks. Since diamonds are fresh on his mind, I will start there. Mr. Chairman, I understand for the secondary diamond industry to get off the ground it needs to get agreement from the industries that mine the diamonds. The NWT agreed that the diamonds selected to be cut in the NWT have to be cut in the NWT, not recognizing the cost factor in cutting the smaller, less expensive stones. To my understanding, that's an agreement this government has made. Is there a time frame associated with that agreement if that agreement is a fact? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it's a policy framework of this government. In the early days of BHP through the different arrangements that we made, the government of the day developed this framework policy to try to develop a secondary diamond industry in the North. Instead of having all the rough diamonds go to Europe and out of our hands, we developed a policy and now BHP Billiton have agreed, through an MOU, to supply 10 percent of the diamonds from their mine to manufacturers here in the North. Diavik also has signed an MOU on that and we are working on De Beers. They have also agreed to do that as well. In this framework agreement, there is a requirement for the northern manufacturers to cut and polish the diamonds here in the NWT. That is the arrangement. As for the length of it, we have no time frame on that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, is the policy framework of the government contingent on the MOU with suppliers of the rough diamonds? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The MOU has to be consistent with the policy framework. Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the way diamonds are bought, it's my understanding that you get a supply and you agree to take it, you don't negotiate what diamonds you get. I have been told by manufacturers that between 30 and 50 percent of the diamonds are unfeasible to cut in the NWT because of the size and quality of the diamonds as it relates to the cost of doing business in the NWT. Have any of the cutting and polishing facilities approached this government on that restrictive policy? Some of them are saying it's probably cheaper to take these diamonds and throw them away than to cut them, thus it will yield a minus on the bottom line. Have any issues of that nature been brought to the department? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. This concern has been raised to the department and to me by the different manufacturers in the NWT, and there are a number of suggestions that were made. One was, according to our criteria, that manufacturers might manufacture 100 percent of the GNWT rough that they purchase in the NWT from the beginning. They have to cut and polish it all in the North. There is one solution and that is if the producers could provide them with a supply of bigger diamonds. But, as you said, they get a selection of diamonds and some of them are big and some of them are very small. I understand that being involved in diamonds for a number of years as a government, we realize that the industry is such that the small diamonds world-wide are cut in India, China and Sierra Leone and in places where they have very cheap labour. Our operations here, we are told, are comparable to operations in New York and there are concerns raised by the manufacturers that it's not feasible to cut the very small diamonds. So we prefer that if they have the opportunity, that they take the smaller ones to where they can cut it in a feasible way. That's been raised to us. We are dealing with the framework policy of this government. It's a policy and we have been discussing internally how we can accommodate the manufacturers in looking at this problem. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it's very important to have a real good look at this and see if we can adjust the policy to allow the cutting and polishing facilities, those people who buy these diamonds, to send them overseas and get them cut and bring them back and make money on sales tax. As a government, we are spending a lot of dollars supporting these businesses and if our own policies are going to be hindering their success, then we better tackle that very soon. I do have one question though. For a community or region that has entered negotiations with these companies and has negotiated access to rough, what does the policy say in terms of communities selling the rough to cutting and polishing facilities that require more diamonds, without the said community having to getting into the cutting and polishing business, per se? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The one-minute answer is that yes, according to our policy there's a 10 percent rough that the producers have to provide to manufacturers in the North if they so choose to sell to the communities, and it's within that framework policy.

Question.