Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After a long period of inactivity in the diamond polishing and cutting industry, we see the opportunity for new players who are interested in starting up. Admittedly, this is a critical time in our territory’s future and we need to revitalize our thinking in the industry to put the NWT back on the international diamond stage.
Understandably, there are so many naysayers out there who, no doubt, have a concern with the past failings of the industry. I agree, we don’t want to repeat the scabs of our past, but we must recognize we are at a critical impasse in our efforts to reinvigorate our secondary polishing industry. We need to create ladders of opportunity and this motion speaks to these ladders of opportunity.
We need a proper mandate and a roadmap to establish a successful future for diamond manufacturers in the NWT. We need the proper policy and framework to deal with a secured certification process. We need to enhance the marketing of the Polar Bear brand. We need to establish innovative trading solutions with stakeholders and we need to define all real commercial advantages in being the future central diamond trading hub in Canada.
This new direction, this new vision cannot be achieved with the current November 2010 Diamond Policy Framework. This is why, with the support of my colleagues today, we hope to encourage the Department of ITI to carve out a new set of footprints in this industry.
The motion itself speaks about the Department of ITI to revise its Diamond Policy Framework and to reflect the needs to fully create a successful secondary industry for the North.
The first opportunity is with the securing of the diamond certification process itself. Faith in the certification and authenticity of this program is paramount in security of the brand, and it will be pertinent that the GNWT put all the proper safeguards to reduce the risk that was experienced in the past. As well, if done efficiently, the GNWT received over $552,000 a year in revenues through its certification process and the taxpayer would welcome back this revenue.
Next is the Polar Bear trademark itself, which has been dormant for many years. At its peak, the GNWT received over $318,000 a year in royalties, and combined with the certification process this was almost $900,000 a year in revenue source, which has been sorely missed by the taxpayer.
What this all translates to is opportunity; opportunity for our Department of ITI to forge a proper plan of action to promote and enhance our branding process as we re-emerge on the international market because you cannot make money unless you spend money.
The next items to this motion speak to the strengthening of conditions for our current and future northern approved diamond manufacturers. This can be achieved in many ways, but would be truly successful if our diamonds could actually stay in the North. The current diamond pipeline system is antiquated and counterproductive to achieving this success. Currently, once diamonds are produced, there is a quick valuation of these diamonds in Yellowknife and then these rough stones are shipped, depending on the mines, to either Antwerp, Belgium or London, England. There they are made available in what is termed rough boxes. These rough boxes are then purchased by our crew of northern diamond manufacturers and then shipped back to the NWT for cutting and polishing. You can see that this greatly adds to the costs of the process for our northern diamond manufacturers. It lessens our control on the evaluation process and adds significant cost to the consumer.
By this government working with the Diamond Bourse of Canada, we can mitigate this process by establishing a local diamond bourse, thus creating localized sorting, evaluating and rough box purchasing here in our own backyard. This will greatly lessen the operational costs for our northern approved diamond manufacturers, create more jobs, entice larger international banking firms to set up shop here in the North, increase the profit margins for the secondary industry and will, no doubt, translate to a better value of goods at the point of sale to the general consumer.
In essence, this is a win for the taxpayer, a win for the manufacturer and a win for the consumer.
I can appreciate that the whole process of the diamond secondary industry is complex. I further
recognize that many may be skeptical of its re-emergence on the international scene, but we have been given a second chance at this industry, and these second chances do not come along too often during one’s lifetime, and we owe it to this industry to do what we can for its success and to mitigate its potential failure.
I’d like to thank the seconder of this motion, Mr. Bouchard, for supporting this motion and for my colleagues here today who I hope will be supporting the principle of this motion later today. Thank you.