Montreal’s newspaper The Gazette is reporting that according to the mine’s president in an interview he gave to the newspaper La Tribune, yesterday Canada’s last asbestos mine, the Jeffrey Mine won’t reopen.
The 2.5 kilometre-wide asbestos mining pit at Mine Jeffrey Inc is situated in the town of Asbestos, Quebec, 170 kilometres east of Montreal. A small lake has formed at the bottom of the open-cast asbestos mine.
The Gazette’s report says:
“Bernard Coulombe got confirmation that a $58-million loan from the Quebec government that would have helped it reopen for the next 20 years has been cancelled, the Sherbrooke daily reported on its website.
Cancelling the loan was an election promise of the Parti Québécois. Now that it has formed the new government, that promise has been met, Coulombe told the newspaper.
No official announcement has been made, however. …………….
Versailles refused to confirm whether the government loan has, indeed, been scrapped, nor whether the mine will, in fact, remain closed.
The loan was announced in June by the Liberal government of then-Premier Jean Charest.
Long criticized by environmental health experts for producing a deadly fibre, the Jeffrey was to reopen next summer and produce 250,000 tonnes of asbestos over the next two decades, mainly for export to the developing world.
Its proponents said the reopening would have created 425 jobs directly and 1,000 indirectly.”
Readers of Unionsafety will recall that a petition against Asbestos exportation by the Canadian Jeffrey mine was highlighted in the news item on this website entitled, Canadian Tory Party Threatens Asbestos Victim Widow in December of last year.
Chris Ingram, Unionsafety website editor, along with tens of thousands of others in the UK signed that petition. He received an email from the leader of the Green Party of Canada and local MP to the Jeffrey Mine, Elizabeth May; in which she said:
“Thank you for your letter of support for Michaela Keyserlingk’s message, and of condemning Canada’s disregard for the dangers of asbestos. Having been a founder of Ban Asbestos Now Canada before my career in politics, I am well acquainted with the issue.
Canada alone prevented the United Nations from adding chrysotile asbestos to the global list of hazardous substances - a move that will cost lives and further tarnish Canada’s reputation on the international stage. The Green Party has called upon the government to take immediate action on this issue numerous times, and believes that our mining and exportation of this cancer causing mineral – especially to developing countries – is scandalous and nothing short of shameful.
The Harper Government has portrayed chrysotile asbestos as a legitimate export, distinct from amphibole-class asbestos, in that when “used safely” there are no dangers posed to those using it. Such a claim mocks the future victims of our “safe” export by laying the blame on them for developing serious illnesses, when in reality it is Canada that knowingly exports a cancer causing substance.
The European Union has banned the extraction, importation and use of all forms of asbestos. The Green Party supports a similar measure in Canada, and wants to work with Quebec to phase out the mining of asbestos and provide transition support for affected asbestos workers, families and communities.
It is my hope that the avoidable deaths of people such as Robert Keyserlingk (Michaela’s husband) will continue to be a testimony on why we must put an end to asbestos mining. As Canada’s first elected Green M.P., I assure you that I will continue to work tirelessly on stopping cancer and other illnesses where, in cases like this one, it is entirely preventable and the result of human behavior.”
It remains to be seen whether or not the loan is cancelled and the mine remains closed which will put an end to Canadian exportation of one the world’s deadliest industrial products to developing nations.
Source: Montreal Gazette
See also: Canadian Tory Party Threatens Asbestos Victim Widow