Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like today to take a minute to look at what is happening in our backyards and the remote part of this country in the mining industry. Mr. Speaker, we continue to see through the Con and Giant gold properties, production in the neighbourhood of 120 ounces of gold a year and diamonds that are now valued at about half a billion dollars a year. Mr. Speaker, these are significant developments. They are driving our economy causing the NWT to be a leader in Canada and economic growth. We've also seen a number of significant things in and around the diamond industry as we look at this fast maturing industry in the Canadian mineral field. We saw in the last few months, the approval by 52 countries of the Kimberly Process, which will help secure the confidence in the market through an international certification process. We've seen training programs, many of them fostered by and supported by this government. We've got used to some new corporate names in our communities, Mr. Speaker, names like Sirius and Arslanian. We are just getting used to those and new names are coming in. We are going to be getting used to names like Beny -Sofer and Sons, Rosy Blue, E. Schreiber Inc., Backes and Strauss, Laurelton and one that is rather familiar to us, Tiffany's.

Mr. Speaker, we are seeing what was a promising part of our economy with dozens of people employed in the sorting, cutting and polishing field. This will mean hundreds of people in the very near future. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to just take a minute to acknowledge what is going on here. This weekend and next week in Toronto takes place Canada's major national mining program, the Prospectors' and Developers' Association of Canada. This is where the risk-takers, the diggers and the people who put their fortunes at risk looking for minerals gather to see what is going on, and I wish them all the best in the future here in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause