Mr. Speaker, asbestos is the greatest industrial killer that the world has ever known. In fact, more Canadians die from asbestos than from all other industrial and occupational causes combined.
Yet, Canada remains one of the largest producers and exporters of asbestos in the world. In fact, Canada not only produces a great deal of asbestos, we spend millions of dollars subsidizing the asbestos industry and sending teams of Department of Justice lawyers around the world trying to block other countries' efforts to curb its use.
Today, members of the building trade unions, CAW, the Canadian Labour Congress, Health and Welfare and occupational health professionals gathered on Parliament Hill to send a message to the Government of Canada that we should ban asbestos in all its forms and institute a just transition program for asbestos workers who may be affected, that we should end all government subsidies of asbestos, both in Canada and abroad, and that we should stop blocking international conventions designed to curb its use, such as the Rotterdam Convention.