Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Member for his concern and his
questions regarding the secondary industry. In my time as a Member of this House, I’ve always had the belief in the industry. The bottom fell out in 2008-2009. We went from having factories to having nothing, and certainly, with the sale of these two factories, we’ve got an agreement on the polar bear, we’ve got somebody who is very passionate about rebirth of the industry and reviving this industry in Deepak International. We are very excited about the future of the secondary industry here in the Northwest Territories, and through the framework it certainly supports a value-added sector. That’s something that’s key to all of this.
In my time, and I’ve been involved in the diamond file going back to 1997 when I was a city councillor with the City of Yellowknife on the Secondary Industry Task Force with the City of Yellowknife, when we got out and started marketing the city as the Diamond Capital of North America, one of the main things that, through my involvement in that, was it’s all about access to rough. If you have access to rough, people will come here to get that rough. With some of the changing of the landscape on the mining side here in the Northwest Territories, we are continuing a dialogue with Harry Winston on perhaps getting rough being able to be supplied here in Yellowknife. That’s a huge opportunity for us. We have to ensure that there’s a supply to northern manufacturers and we’ve got agreements with existing producers to see that happen.
Part of the exercise in talking to De Beers and going on that tour was to talk about Gahcho Kue and what is going to happen with the diamonds from Gahcho Kue. We need to ensure that there’s integrity in the system, there’s control, and certainly, this is a highly valued product. Just the export of diamonds alone puts the Northwest Territories, out of the 13 jurisdictions in Canada, fifth on foreign export in this country and it’s because of diamonds.
My belief is there’s a lot more diamonds out there. We’ve got some companies that are going to be ramping up exploration efforts this coming summer to find more diamonds and there’s a lot of potential on the existing properties, both at the former BHP and at Diavik, and we’re very excited about the future of diamond mining here, and the secondary industry here in the Northwest Territories.
Just in this past year and a half we’ve come a long way. We’re going to get these factories opened, we’re going to get this done. We are going to have an industry here and we’re also anxious to see what else we can do. I mentioned earlier, we are still in discussion with other companies that are interested in doing business here in the Northwest Territories, and it’s getting out and promoting the opportunity that’s here and seeking out that investment.
We hopefully will get some more investment here in Yellowknife and in the Northwest Territories when it comes to the secondary industry, and my goal as Minister is to ensure that there’s a ready supply of rough diamonds here. That’s what this is all about, is having the diamonds here so people can access them and we can have that secondary industry here and put 45 or 50 jobs in the Member’s riding. That’s what this is all about and I think we can do a lot more of that. Thank you.