NNSL (Mar 27/98) - David Connelly, co-chair of the Yellowknife Diamond Industry Task Force, is stepping down.

He said it is time to focus on his business and seek out opportunities with the diamond industry.

"It's my point of view I need to return to the things I can do best now, my business while government goes on with the incentive packages and attracting investment," said Connelly on Wednesday.

As a voluntary member of the task force, Connelly has been unable to participate in a number of business opportunities for his company, Ile Royale Enterprises Ltd., which develops strategic alliances and new businesses.

If he were to take advantage of opportunities as co-chair, the public might perceive a conflict of interest for his business.

"It is time for me to return to my business duties, which may well involve the secondary diamond industries," he said in a letter to other task force members.

During his six-month tenure, Connelly said the task force has done a good job directing public and government attention towards secondary diamond industries.

"It's like a comet. We identify the benefits from diamonds as the head of the comet. And what the task force did was also draw attention to the lengthening tail of the comet, the other opportunities," he said.

Connelly believes that people have seen the tail and the normal process now is for government to work on the economic incentives in the regulatory department while businesses work on investment opportunities.

Mayor Dave Lovell, co-chair of the task force, will miss Connelly.

"Dave's worked awful hard on it. He's put everything he's had into it and I guess what he was telling me is he felt there was getting to be a bit of a conflict of interest in this and he was having to pass up business," said Lovell.

With Connelly's help, the prospects of secondary diamond industries have gone from nothing to a pretty good bet something will come from the diamond industry, said Lovell.

He said the next move for the task force is to simply wait on a number of announcements.

"There's supposed to some sort of BHP announcement coming out in the next little while," said Lovell. "They haven't said so directly but there have been enough wink, wink, nod, nod to say something is coming out."