Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago, the Minister of the Environment said he was confident that Canada would ratify the Kyoto protocol in 2002, but added that this deadline might change. Since then, the United States have indicated that they would not ratify the protocol, and the Canadian provinces, with the exception of Quebec, have asked Ottawa to do the same.
Is the federal government in the process of building an alliance with the United States and nine Canadian provinces to put off indefinitely the ratification of the Kyoto protocol? If not, could the minister tell us when Canada will ratify the Kyoto protocol?