Mr. Speaker, I think that a broad debate is in order on the issue of climate change. Ratification of the Kyoto protocol must also be seen as a golden opportunity to develop areas of economic activity in Quebec and Canada that we would never have dared develop without such a protocol. Kyoto is but a step toward developing areas that can be used to promote sustainable development.
I will remind hon. members that we have a great wind energy potential in Canada, and that 60% of this potential is in Quebec, most of which is on the North Shore, and in the Gaspé and Lower St. Lawrence regions. Here is a golden opportunity to develop our resource regions, to ensure that our energy resources—wind energy in this instance—can be developed. These are developing areas that are creating jobs, but more importantly, we must develop these industries of the future for Quebec.
We must ensure that the expertise we develop in Quebec can be exported worldwide, not only to reduce emission rates in Quebec but also to possibly take advantage of the joint mechanisms contained in the Kyoto protocol. We are being given a golden opportunity to be winners. This is what ratifying Kyoto would do for us.