Mr. Speaker, I must say that the slight to Yukon was not intentional. My former boss was the vice-president of the Yukon Chamber of Mines. If the hon. member ever gets to see Mike Power of Aurora Geosciences and Scott Casselman and other colleagues, I ask him to give them my regards and greetings. They are still doing good exploration work in the territories.
In the Yukon, the Klondike is one of the great stories of Canadian history. The Yukon is a fascinating place. If members have not been there, let me suggest that they go up and see the hon. member's riding. There are some beautiful stretches and some needed work.
The parliamentary secretary asked about skills development. If I may, I will put in a little plug for the plan that the leader of my party has put out overall for skills and trades across the country to try to increase the number of people able to go into the skills and trades. The plan is also to encourage them financially, so more tools will be tax deductible for the trades and skills. The problem was originally brought forward due to mechanics not being able to claim their tools against their income tax, but I believe that it will help overall. It will help all sorts of trades.
With regard to the specifics of increasing value added for the diamond industry, I am not 100% knowledgeable about the specifics. I will say, having dealt with other resource industries, that regulatory processes can be a problem. I found that in dealing with the chemical industry. There was a decision some years ago, which I think everyone regrets, that allowed the potential for some value added export products to be taken to the United States instead of developed here in Canada.
What I will say is that what we need to do is develop enough of a core. As we have skills in an area, they tend to attract. We have two mines in the territories in full development. As we continue to develop more mines, a natural centre of gravity will develop. That is what we need to do. Tax credits, incentives, et cetera, will bring people in. We need to use the market for motivation; they work together very well.