Diamonds belong to the North

Last week the Chamber of Mines threatened to walk out of a meeting with Northern Affairs Minister Jane Stewart if the subject of diamonds came up.

It was an unfortunate call on the part of chamber president Doug Willy, a longtime Northerner who works for Diavik Diamond Mines, an outfit that appears committed to hiring and training Northerners.

No doubt Willy was reacting to the suggestion that Diavik could be obligated to helpdevelop a secondary diamond industry (sorting and valuation) as part of its impact and benefits agreement.

As these diamonds belong to the people of the NWT, just as oil belongs to Alberta and the forests to British Columbia, such a stipulation should have been part of the deal with BHP and anyone else wanting to mine NWT diamonds.

But like the Catholic Church, the diamond industry sits on a foundation of historic tradition and beliefs and is fiercely resistance to outside interference.

With that in mind, Northerners should work their fingers to the bone to make the prospect of such a bitter pill actually sweet to swallow. That would mean serious Northern investment, government guarantees and the kind of concessions that generate jobs and profits and make doing business in the North an attractive prospect.

The Chamber of Mines should be sympathetic to the necessity of getting the NWT off the back of the Canadian taxpayer. They can play an integral role in educating Northern leaders to the sensitivities and needs of the global diamond industry.

Northerners must work together if our children are to find jobs in their birthplace. Blindly guarding self-interest will only destroy golden opportunities.

The word from both the Catholic and public school boards in Yellowknife is that their accountants and trustees have learned their lessons. Threats of layoffs and program reductions of just two years ago never materialized and the future looks bright.

Renovations and expansion are now possible, thanks to a firm grip on the budget. We can even report that some of those dreadful portable classrooms are on the way out.

School board trustees usually find themselves in the media spotlight when the news is bad, but rarely for the opposite, so perhaps they should be given a collective pat on the back.