Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions today of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and it gets back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the government’s support to the diamond industry and the value added industry here in the Northwest Territories.
It seems to me that the 14th Legislative Assembly
— some of my colleagues in this room were Members at that time — was very supportive of diamonds in the Northwest Territories and what they meant. But for some reason the 15th Legislative Assembly dropped the ball on diamonds. They did away with the diamond division at ITI, and support for the diamond policy and strategy sank to an all time low.
Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by asking the Minister of ITI: where exactly is our diamond policy and a strategy on trying to get the most out of our diamond industry here in the Northwest Territories?