Mr. Speaker, I will try to pick up on the question asked by the member for Yukon and try to address both.
If we were able to reach an agreement on environmental standards, that might mean that a country such as ours and all of the countries participating in such an agreement would have to give up some of their sovereignty. As people live as neighbours in a society they give up some of their sovereignty by virtue of having to respect their neighbours and the environment they live in.
I cannot predict, nor would I pretend to be able to predict, the outcome of negotiations and how environmental considerations might be included in any FTAA. I would hope that we could arrive at that, just as I would hope that we would cover in any international agreement, matters of cultural diversity.
I believe that biodiversity is as important as cultural diversity. My colleague for Parkdale—High Park addressed that issue earlier this evening and I share her views.
I say to the hon. member that is not to say that things are perfect. I would hope that he would keep at it and try to improve it as he has over the years. I applaud him for that. As we do so collectively, things will improve. Unfortunately, reality being what it is, we take too long to get where we want to be but we will not get there by giving up.
The complexity of an issue does not negate l'exigence de s'y adresser. I would hope that because he is not satisfied that things are not improving fast enough that does not mean we will all give up to make it happen. On the contrary, I think probably we have to increase our efforts to make it happen.