The Quebec government has not yet decided whether to give $58 million of financing to a group of investors who want to open an underground asbestos mine (the Jeffrey mine) and export large amounts of asbestos to Asia for the next 25 years. The government’s own Directors of Public Health from the 17 regions of Quebec have asked the government not to finance the project, pointing out that it would create a significant increase of asbestos-related diseases amidst workers and the general population, leading to significant social and financial costs. However, the Minister of Economic Development, Clément Gignac, with the support of Quebec’s Occupational Health & Safety Commission, refuses to heed this advice. He just completed a trade mission in India and is pushing for a Quebec-India collaboration agreement to facilitate increased export of asbestos from Quebec to India. In India, health activists and trade unionists met with Gignac’s officials and held a demonstration to express their strong opposition.
Kathleen Ruff, www.RightOnCanada.ca