Mr. Speaker, we spent the last few weeks discussing Quebec sovereignty in the House. I think it is high time that we turned to another sovereignty issue and that is Canada's failure to assert sovereignty over the Northwest Passage in the Arctic.
On June 13 the minister told the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs that the United States informs Canada when its nuclear submarines travel under Canada's Arctic ice.
Will the minister confirm the existence of this, as he put it, novel diplomatic arrangement, when it was signed and whether similar agreements exist with other countries?