Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had comments I would like to make about the consolidation of the human resources section. Before I do that, I would like to make some comments and observations about this debate going on about the loan guarantees and the receivership for the secondary diamond industry.

First of all, I do believe that this is an important industry. I do believe that the diamond industry in general is one that we have to appreciate for all that it has done for our economy. I do support the previous government and the current government for having worked hard to encourage and foster the secondary diamond industry.

Having said that though, I don't believe the government has the power to, as Minister Bell said earlier, force two businesses to marry. We can't force individuals to marry. From what I understand, this potential buyer that did not turn out to be the buyer is a big player in the diamond industry. I think from my understanding, there are many more issues here than just whether or not the northern diamond producer was willing to give enough rough cuts. There are lots of issues involved that they had to work out on their own. I agree that the government has a role to play and goodness knows that the government has expended a lot of investments in terms of loan guarantees and socioeconomic benefit agreements, and lots of influence and pressure was put upon the diamond industry by all successive governments since the beginning of the diamond industry to get as good a deal for the North as possible.

I think we come to a point where we really have to look at where we are and how much we are willing to do for this industry and how many millions we are going to pour into this. Keep in mind there are secondary diamond cutting and polishing plants that are doing okay. Tiffany is doing well. They are getting their rough cuts. I guess they have a closer relationship with Diavik and that's working to their benefit. Arslanian and all of them have had some downturns, but I just don't know if we can get to the bottom of what exactly happened in this room.

What I am more interested in is I would like the government to come to us and have a heart-to-heart talk about where we are going with this secondary diamond industry in terms of this company. As the Minister already indicated, this has already gone into receivership. The diamond industry worldwide is small. There might be huge companies looking for bargains out there, so we might not even get a deal that will benefit us. I don't want to be pessimistic, but that's how the free market works. We live in a capital society and the market has to dictate at some point and the government has limits as to what it can do.

I am just wondering if the government did not go about it backwards. Why was it that the government announced publicly that the Sirius diamond plant would be sold to this one player, however big or reputable he was, without having gotten the deal written down, and was the producer not consulted in advance to say we have this buyer, are you able to do business with them? Was it not possible for the government to entertain all four proposals at once? I understand there was more than this player who were interested in buying this plant. So why was it that the government came to the gate and said we found a buyer and we will all be happy?

I would think diamond producers in the North are rooted here, they have made investments here and they should have some say on who they do business with and whether or not they can have a business relationship that will work for them, work for the new buyer and work for the government in terms of what the government is interested. If that wasn't done and you have no plan of doing it, how can you have success in upcoming negotiations? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.