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Reopening set despite Ottawa, PQ actions
MONTREAL – The company planning to reopen Quebec’s only asbestos mine says Ottawa’s decision to stop opposing the addition of asbestos to an international hazardous-substances list will not stop the mine’s relaunch next spring.
And despite a promise by the Parti Québécois to cancel a $58-million loan to reopen the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, a company spokesperson said work to prepare the mine to reopen is continuing.
“The status remains unchanged as far as the mine is concerned,” said Guy Versailles, a spokesman for Balcorp Ltd., part of a consortium of investors in the mine. The mine received the loan in June, and at least $7 million has been disbursed, Versailles said.
Adding asbestos to the hazardous-substances list under the United Nations Rotterdam Convention would require exporting countries to inform importing countries about the hazards of using it, and to include safe-handling and proper precautionary measures.
For asbestos to be added to the list, all the countries that have signed the convention — more than 140 — would have to agree. Canada was not the only country to oppose the inclusion of asbestos, Versailles said in an interview Monday.
Other asbestos producers include Russia, China and Brazil.
Although other countries could try to block the addition of asbestos, it is Canada that has worked hardest to prevent that from happening, said Kathleen Ruff, a human-rights adviser to the Rideau Institute.
The next meeting of the convention is scheduled for June in Rome.
Ruff, a longtime anti-asbestos activist, said she expects other countries to drop their opposition because the pressure from international health and environmental organizations is so strong.
Asbestos has been produced in Quebec’s Eastern Townships region for more than a century. But the health risks associated with it — including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis — have led for calls for a ban on its production. Asbestos use is already banned in more than 50 countries.
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