Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am certainly happy that the Member was proud of that initiative. We still think that national initiative will make sense in the future. At this point, we have the only operating mines in the country, so we sat down and talked with our local industry about how we move forward, and just recognizing that we have limited resources, recognizing our participation in this National Diamond Strategy. It was probably taking one person almost full time to talk to the factories because that is what we have been doing, is consulting with industry about where we could best focus our efforts and our resources. They said to us, and they were unequivocal, if you really want to help us, let us work on branding. Let's build this Rare Nature Campaign and never mind some of these national strategies right now. Let's build up the brand name, develop and establish our brands. When we have done that and we have been successful in that, then we can talk about national initiatives and national campaigns which, I am sure, have merit. But at this point, our priority has to be around supporting and bolstering our local effort. So we were responsive and agreed with the local cutting and polishing factories that that had to be our first priority, supporting the secondary industry, and national initiatives are nice. We will get back there at some point. This was the priority that industry came forward with. That is what we are following. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Brendan Bell on Question 352-15(4): GNWT Support For Secondary Diamond Industry
In the Legislative Assembly on February 7th, 2006. See this statement in context.
Further Return To Question 352-15(4): GNWT Support For Secondary Diamond Industry
Question 352-15(4): GNWT Support For Secondary Diamond Industry
Item 6: Oral Questions
February 6th, 2006
Page 802
See context to find out what was said next.