Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Premier. We’re about to head out, here, for a while, and we’ve heard the Premier talk about a potential project to build a highway down the Mackenzie Valley. There have been proponents out there who have suggested this should be done on the basis of a P3 project. I’d just like to ask the Premier if he’ll assign any contracts for a highway down the Mackenzie Valley before we get back in September.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Interjections.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we could just have a contract put on our desk, we would look at it.

Realistically, though, we know much work needs to be done on the Mackenzie Valley Highway process. I’ve had discussions with my Cabinet colleagues, as well as shared some of the vision of that with the Prime Minister at the Western Premiers’ Conference, and we’ll continue to build on that.

Hand in hand with that concept, I think the Deh Cho Bridge project gave us clear evidence that we need something more solid in our policy about P3 projects than references in the Financial Administration Act, which would also cover the leasing of photocopiers. I’d like to ask the Premier: where are we at in developing a policy that would allow us to enter into P3 projects on a more solid footing?

Mr. Speaker, we need to pay attention to that file. In fact, we need to renew it. I guess that is a way of putting it. At one point the Government of the Northwest Territories did venture into the P3 area. That first movement wasn’t very satisfactory, so we’ve agreed that FMBS would take charge in that area, as it relates to financial matters. Hopefully, as we come back together in the fall, we can show Members the work that’s being done on it and provide an update at that time.

Mr. Speaker, again, as we learned through the Deh Cho Bridge project, when you have a proponent that is a private corporation, transparency becomes an issue, as does our government’s ability to control some matters like procurement.

I would like to ask the Premier if any policy developed by this government that is related to public–private partnerships would include an element that would speak to the issue of northern participation.

Mr. Speaker, an interest we always have as the Government of the Northwest Territories is seeing a successful venture happen and the benefits staying in the North. As we develop this and bring this back to Members, we hope we can lay out how it’s coming together.

One of the issues with the P3 process — even the federal government and other jurisdictions have had to wrestle with this — is that a true P3 would put the majority of risk on the private sector. As a government we would have to see how far we go that way. One of our exercises in our last initial round in the late ’90s, I believe, was to try to pull some of that control back as a government, and that skewed the process a bit. Again, as we come forward with that, we’ll be glad to share with Members what work has been done and continue to work to revise it.

Thank you, Mr.

Roland. Final

supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would concur that with the P3 projects, whether it’s the Deh Cho Bridge or the Taltson hydro expansion or whatever it is we’re talking about, certainly our government has taken the majority of the risk. Therefore, I think we should be in a position to make up the rules. I’d like to ask the Premier if he would also agree to try and engage northern industry in any policy that’s developed, to ensure we have something very concrete when it comes to maximizing the benefits to Northerners through northern participation in any major capital infrastructure project.

Mr. Speaker, for any changes we’ll make or look at making, we’ll be sitting down with Members to look at what work has been done. At that point we’d be prepared to expand that further to our business community and people across the North. We need to sit down and come up with a bit of an action plan looking at where things are coming together, sharing that with Members and then discussing the next steps from there — much the same process we will be following with the Business Incentive Policy work.

Thank you, Mr.

Roland. The

honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker. My

questions today are for the Minister of ITI. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I spoke of the fact we have had diamond mining in the Northwest Territories now for over ten years. I feel it’s long overdue that we take a look at our policy, our objectives and a strategy to deal with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. As we see other jurisdictions across the country — Saskatchewan, Ontario and perhaps Quebec — developing potential diamond mines, there’s a great risk that these other jurisdictions are going to pass us by.

The first question I’d have for the Minister is: why can’t the Government of the Northwest Territories get access to the 10 per cent of rough, and why does it need to be 10 per cent? Why can’t we look at even 15 per cent or 20 per cent and set up a diamond exchange here in Yellowknife instead of Antwerp or London?

Thank you, Mr.

Ramsay. The

honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With regard to access to diamonds, since the diamonds were first discovered the diamond industry has been one of the big success stories for the

Northwest Territories. We’re now third in the world in production of diamonds, behind Russia and Botswana. We’re even ahead of South Africa. Part of the issue is that we are a territory, so the federal government owns the resources.

The problem we had as a government was how to receive benefits from the diamond industry itself. The government of the day was able to successfully negotiate with the diamond companies, which was unprecedented at the time. Since then, we’ve seen that other sovereign countries have started to follow the process we’ve been taking.

The industry provides 10 per cent of the allocations for manufacturing in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, my fear, again, is that we don’t have — and I know the previous government got rid of it — the Diamond Division at ITI. I’m not sure exactly why that happened. Here we are on the verge of other jurisdictions developing mines, and we need to review where we’re going with diamonds and with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. Again, I don’t understand why we can’t get that 10 per cent and then divvy it up amongst local cut-and-polish plants here in Yellowknife, and we could also open up a diamond exchange.

Once you have the diamonds, people will come. There are examples of this across the world: New York, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, London. If we don’t do this, it’s going to end up in Toronto, and that would be a shame. If there is a diamond exchange in Canada, it belongs here in the Northwest Territories.

The Government of the Northwest Territories’ diamond policy framework was established in June of 1999. This policy facilitated the development of a diamond manufacturing industry in the Northwest Territories. Certainly, the policy needs to be reviewed and updated. As a government we will be reviewing the current strategy. We are quite prepared to look at the suggestions that have been made by the Member and work very closely with the standing committee so we can improve and update our diamond policy.

Mr.

Speaker, I look forward to

working with the Minister and the department on developing the strategy and reviewing the policies that are out there.

Yes, we are third in the world in terms of production. I was a city councillor here in Yellowknife in the late ’90s, when the gold mining was falling out and the diamond mines came in. Diamond mining does add a tremendous amount to the economy here in the Northwest Territories. We can’t underestimate that, but I do believe we should be getting and receiving more. The federal

government doesn’t want to come to the plate in terms of resource revenue sharing.

The next question I’d like to ask the Minister is: if the federal government isn’t going to address resource revenue sharing, will the government entertain an effort to take an equity position in resource development, specifically in diamond mining?

An equity position in a diamond facility is certainly something we’re prepared to look at. We know other provinces have done that in different sectors, and this is an area we can look at. I believe it would have to involve stakeholders in the diamond industry, but this is something we are prepared to look at.

We’re prepared to look at any options that would improve and increase the benefits to the Northwest Territories. One of our primary objectives is to see the allocation for the Northwest Territories being fully utilized in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. Final

supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With other jurisdictions moving forward — and I mentioned Saskatchewan with Fort à la Corne and the Ontario Victor Diamond Project in northern Ontario — time is of the essence here. I don’t think we can wait another year before we develop a strategy and a plan and policies on where this government is going to go.

I’d like to ask the Minister: what is the strategy in terms of a timeline to address policy issues surrounding diamond mining in the Northwest Territories and the government’s role in that?

We will be working in the next few months or so to lay out our approach to how we will be undertaking this review and how we will be laying it out over the next year. My plan is to take this approach and discuss it further with the standing committee.

I should also point out that we’ve been working very closely with other jurisdictions that have diamonds, and we’ve been able to share the benefit of our expertise with our sister or brother diamond-producing provinces. I really think that with this review we will be able to take a very creative look at the way we deal with diamonds in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. The

honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions of the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

I spoke yesterday in my Member’s statement about the difficulties encountered by regional boards in providing housing for their teachers or ensuring that their teachers have adequate housing. They have sent a letter to the Minister. It describes the need for available, adequate and affordable housing, and it talks about housing shortages, substandard and unsafe living conditions in housing and exorbitant rents.

I’d like to know if the Minister has any plans to tackle the housing problems these education boards encounter year after year.

Thank you, Ms.

Bisaro. The

honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.