Mr. Speaker, Richmond—Arthabaska, as you said so well, is a riding where people will find the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos. Recently, the people of Asbestos had to turn their attention to a short-lived debate: some people wanted to change the name of the municipality of Asbestos because of everything that has happened internationally, including the bad reputation asbestos has had for many years.
We have just been subjected to an exercise in pure demagogy by the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre, who, yet again, is being the anti-asbestos champion par excellence. I did not think we could find in Quebec or even in Canada—he comes from Winnipeg, of course—someone who would run down the product of asbestos as much as the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre just did.
I am insulted on behalf of the entire population of Asbestos. It is a proud community that has decided to keep its name on the grounds that the product it now produces is called chrysotile.
Since the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre said he worked in an asbestos mine, he must know very well that the products that were extracted in the 1950s and the 1960s were amphiboles. Houses that were insulated with asbestos, with the friable products, contain fibres that stay in the human body for a long time, according to studies on biopersistance, and do cause asbestosis, cancer, etc.—in short, health problems. Today the product in question is called chrysotile. It is like cement. This product does not crumble and it is totally safe. It has to be used safely.
I would like the hon. member to tell me whether he knows the difference between the two products because what is being made today, in Asbestos and in Thetford Mines, is no longer an amphibole; it is chrysotile. It is not the same thing and the people of Quebec defend this product.
I would like the hear the hon. member say a few words about this.