Quebec and Canadian governments end their historic support of the asbestos industry.

Quebec’s asbestos mines have operated for 130 years and made Quebec a world leader in export of asbestos over the past century. Even though the scientific evidence was overwhelming that use of asbestos was causing epidemics of asbestos-related diseases and death, the Quebec and Canadian governments continued to give the asbestos industry unquestioning financial and political backing. This legitimization of the asbestos trade by the Quebec and Canadian governments had disastrous repercussions around the world. Canada was more than a major asbestos exporter; it played a key strategic role as leading propagandist in denying the scientific evidence and in arguing for continuation of the global asbestos trade. As industrialized countries recognized the deadly health effects of asbestos and ceased to be customers, Canada successfully targeted developing countries as a source of new markets for asbestos sales. As a consequence, world asbestos sales have stayed steady at around 2 million tons of asbestos a year for the past two decades. Canada created and aggressively promoted the marketing message that chrysotile asbestos, unlike other forms of asbestos, poses virtually no threat to health. Lobbyists, funded by the Quebec and Canadian governments and the asbestos industry, circled the world, bearing the Canadian flag, claiming that chrysotile asbestos could be, and was being, used under ‘safe, controlled conditions’, and was an excellent product for developing countries. Due to its credibility and expertise on the world stage, Canada succeeded in playing a pivotal albeit malignant role at United Nations (UN) gatherings, helping to defeat efforts of health experts to end or restrict use of asbestos. Canada has, for example, blocked the listing of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous substance under the UN Rotterdam Convention for over a decade, thus allowing its continuing global trade without even minimal safety restrictions. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Quebec Premier Jean Charest rebuffed appeals, made to them by scientists and health professionals around the world, to respect the scientific evidence and stop promoting the use of asbestos. Thus it was a dramatic breakthrough when, in a period of just three weeks, the newly elected Parti Québécois (PQ) government of Quebec and the Canadian government announced that they were ending their support of the Quebec asbestos industry. The new Premier of Quebec, Pauline Marois, leader of the sovereigntist PQ, which won the September 4, 2012 election, stated near the end of the election campaign that she would cancel the $58 million loan that former Premier Jean Charest had given just two months earlier to three investors to enable them to open the Jeffrey underground asbestos mine. The open-pit Jeffrey mine (which was the JohnsManville mine for most of the 20th century) had, after 130 years in operation, exhausted its asbestos deposit and shut down. The underground mine was 90% completed in the 1990s at a cost of $135 million, when the company went bankrupt and work halted. With the $58 million loan from Charest, the investors planned to open this mine and produce and export 250,000 tons of asbestos a year for 25 to 50 years, thus making Canada the second largest asbestos exporter in the world, after Russia. Private investors were not willing to invest the required funds to complete the Jeffrey underground mine. The other remaining asbestos mine in Quebec, run by LAB Chrysotile at Thetford Mines, had declared bankruptcy and shut down after a landslide made further work at its mine impossible. Asbestos mining had thus completely ceased in Quebec since October 2011. It seemed that, not for health reasons, but because of supply problems and environmental and financial crises, the Quebec asbestos industry was finally at an end. At this point, however, former Premier Charest intervened to save the Quebec asbestos industry and on June 29, 2012, gave a $58 million government loan to cover 70% of the costs to open the Jeffrey mine. Correspondence to Kathleen Ruff, Smithers, BC V0J 2N6 Canada. Email: [email protected]