Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you to the minister and the deputy minister, etc., for addressing us today.
I have some concerns about one of the funding initiatives in the estimates. It has to do with chrysotile asbestos. As we know, chrysotile asbestos is known to kill people if handled improperly. There is what looks like an increase in funding to the Chrysotile Institute, which is an organization that is basically promoting a hazardous material.
We know in Canada that if it's handled properly there isn't a risk to people using it or handling it. But we know that this organization is promoting the export of chrysotile asbestos to countries that don't have the capacity to handle it in a safe manner. I would suggest that it's not responsible on the part of this government to fund an organization that is promoting such a hazardous material when we know that the World Health Organization, the ILO, and over 40 countries have spoken out against the use of chrysotile asbestos.
I want to ask why we're funding this, in the first place, and why we're increasing the funding, in the second place.