Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of ITI, Mr. Bob McLeod. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I was discussing the establishment of a diamond exchange -- or a bourse, as it’s known -- in Toronto, Ontario. I’d like to get a better understanding of what our government’s role in that was. I understand we even gave $20,000 to the feasibility study to have this bourse located in Toronto. I’d like to ask the Minister how the decision was made to locate this diamond bourse or exchange in Toronto and not in Yellowknife or in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories has played a leadership role in the development of the diamond industry within Canada. We feel that it’s in the best interest of everybody in the diamond sector to have a strong diamond industry in Canada. As such, we participated in a study that was led by Ontario to look at the establishment of a diamond bourse. I should point out that the decision to establish a diamond bourse was made by industry and is not something that we can control.

Mr. Speaker, I am wondering how exactly the Government of the Northwest Territories is going to benefit from having a diamond bourse located in Toronto, Ontario. Thank you.

I share the Member’s view that a diamond bourse would be helpful to be established here in the Northwest Territories. In past discussions, the Member had agreed that we would work together on reviewing the Diamond Policy. I think that the best way to establish a diamond bourse would be to review it as part of that Diamond Policy. Presently, for those diamond cutters or polishers that want to participate in that bourse, they would benefit by being able to take their product to the diamond bourse in Toronto. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would agree with the Minister 100 percent that we need to get on with the work in the area of reviewing our Diamond Policy but, recently, we just lost another senior staff member at ITI. Like I mentioned in my Member’s statement, the last government decided to gut the diamond division at ITI. I just don’t believe we have the manpower to get this done. What are the Minister’s plans to get the Diamond Policy review completed prior to this fall? I think it is something that we have to move on rather quickly, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

We will be moving quickly to get our Diamond Policy review back on track. We will be announcing the hiring of a senior diamond person to work within the department. We will benefit from all of the research that was done by Ontario. We will take that into consideration as we work towards looking at the establishment of our own bourse here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the Minister know whether this feasibility study or the folks involved in the feasibility study even came to Yellowknife to have a look at what is here on the ground in Yellowknife before they made their decision to locate the bourse in Toronto? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My understanding is the group that is establishing the bourse is part of the diamond industry in Ontario. Their main focus was to work with the diamond producer in Ontario from the Victor Mine and work with their jewellers that are based in Toronto. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the issue of lack of public pay phones and the fact is the public interest isn’t necessarily represented by the fact that they keep disappearing. The chances of them returning are zero to none, obviously. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Public Works, who represents the Territory’s interest in intervening in public communications. I would like to hear from the Minister what he is doing to make sure that the public interest is represented in these types of situations by making sure that there is access to public pay phones for the public who can’t afford a cell phone. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Public Works, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, our responsibility through Public Works is in the area of regulatory concerns, really not routine maintenance problems and disappearing of phones and a lack of a number of pay phones. We now have new technology that most people, especially in the Member’s riding, are applying and that is a cell service, Mr. Speaker. The provision of pay phones is a private industry responsibility and the Member is concerned and would like us to bring that forward. Certainly we can bring it to the provider. Thank you.

One of the great jobs that we do here is that we don’t just represent our community in the sense of our constituency. We also represent the Territory’s good as a whole. I can tell you that I have spoken to people from the communities that do not have cell phones. When they come to Yellowknife to do their business, their shopping, they are visiting families and friends. The fact is that access to public pay phones does not exist and I don’t want to say they are hard done by. That may be sort of overstating the problem, but the fact is that there is a real inconvenience. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister is interested, maybe he should take the approach of realizing that community people suffer as well as downtown Yellowknife Centre people. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister of Public Works consider coming up with what really is his job to intervene in the public’s interest? Would he be interested in coming up with a strategy to see if the CRTC will start implementing this need, recognizing that not all Northerners have access to cell phones? Thank you.

It is always very refreshing to see a Member intend to look after and raise concerns from people from all over the North. Mr. Speaker, I had, earlier in my response, indicated that I would raise the issue with the private company that provides pay phones and service in the Northwest Territories and look at the CRTC provisions to see if there is any way we can encourage more pay phones.

Mr. Speaker, I do represent smaller communities in the North. I have not had any complaints providing pay phone service, so that is something that we will have to look at. It is a new issue for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to make it clear, the Minister can go out and you could call NorthwesTel or whomever and ask them nicely and if they say no, they will say, what do you have to say? You will have no response if they say no, thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has the authority under his position to take it straight to

the CRTC as the issue. That is really the issue. I appreciate his overture of saying he will make contact with NorthwesTel. I look forward to that official response, but I want to make sure it is clear that he has the right under his mandate to take a position on behalf of the government for the public interest. I just want to make sure that is distinguished very clearly here. It is great that he will make a phone call to them, but the fact is he also needs to be clear that in his position he has the authority to challenge the issue directly with the CRTC. Thank you.

I always ask nicely. I want to thank the Member for telling me what my responsibilities are and what my authority is. Mr. Speaker, we do have fairly frequent discussions with the phone service provider. This is not an issue that has been raised prior to this. We certainly can have that discussion and see what the options are and see if we can encourage them to look at the issue in the Member’s riding and maybe other jurisdictions across the Territories to enhance the phone service or availability of pay phones. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I want to follow up on some questions that were asked by my colleague Mr. Hawkins and myself about a week and a half ago in regards to the authority of the rental officer. We were asking questions about rent increases and who has the authority to deal with rent increases. I want to quote from an unedited Hansard of February 20th . The

Minister replied, “Whether it be an increase in rent on an annual basis, if they are not satisfied with that, then that is the avenue that they can certainly file a complaint and the rental officer will certainly look into that.” I would like to ask the Minister, where in the Residential Tenancies Act does it indicate that the rental officer has authority to deal with rent increases, the quantity of rent increases? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There are certain sections within the authority. Of course, section 47 of the Residential Tenancies Act deals with the rent increase. Also this section restricts rent increases on rental premises to once a year. Those are the areas that I

was referring to when I responded to the Member’s question. Mahsi.

I thank the Minister for that comment. I would like to quote again from the unedited Hansard on the 20th . The Minister said,

“Certainly with the rental office it could just be a matter of spreading the word and he is the one that can deal with these issues and complaints.” That was in reference to my question about a complaint about high rent. So the Minister just referenced that the act talks about a rental increase in any one year. I would like to ask him whether he could clarify, please, for me and for members of the public. Is there an opportunity for the rental officer to deal with complaints that have to do with high rent increases once that tenants believe are beyond what they should be? Thank you.