Yellowknife (July 28/04) - Resource Wildlife and Economic Development Minister Brendan Bell said the government still supports the cutting and polishing industry, but doesn't want to force something if it doesn't work.

"We don't want to have to intervene. We don't want to force an economic model," Bell said in an interview following the 2004 Energy and Mines Ministers' Conference held in Iqaluit last week.

The territorial government also appears to be backing away from its position on what constitutes a Canadian diamond.

"We didn't get into that level of discussion," he said. "We put local issues aside."

There was a consensus at the conference to move the action plan for the development of the diamond industry back to the premiers' level on July 28 at Niagara- on-the-Lake, Ont.

What comes out of the conference, rather than a specific definition of a Canadian diamond, is a broader policy framework, said the minister.

Quebec and the NWT have a very similar perspective, he said.

"It's about the jobs for us, too," the RWED minister said.

Cutters and polishers have argued in the past that the size of diamond coming from the mines surrounding Yellowknife can make or break them. Cutting and polishing plants' labour costs are static, whether they work on small diamonds or larger diamonds, but more profit can be made off larger diamonds.

"We don't control what's coming out of the ground. What's economic for Tiffany may not be for Deton Cho," said Bell.