Mr. Speaker, Canada has promoted the safe use of chrysotile at home and abroad for more than 30 years. Canada monitors the use of chrysotile and promotes its safe use around the world. Canada does not seek to ban the mining of naturally occurring substances.
Our government said it would not ban a natural resource that is traded around the world. This government will not place a Canadian industry in a position where it would be subject to negative discrimination in a market where the sale is permitted.
Exposure to chrysotile is strictly controlled by maximum exposure limits in workplaces issued by federal, provincial and territorial governments and by restrictions on certain categories of consumer products and products in the workplace under Canada's Hazardous Products Act.
Importing countries are solely responsible for their decision to import products, such as chrysotile, and implementing appropriate measures to ensure the health and safety of their workers in using that resource.
We implemented measures to protect the health and safety of those working in the mining sector, especially workers who handle chrysotile, a long time ago.
For several years now, we have been making a distinction between amphibole and chrysotile, and we have implemented regulatory mechanisms to protect workers in this sector.
The illnesses that we are currently seeing in countries that have made heavy use of asbestos fibres are related to exposure to high doses in the past and inappropriate practices that were prohibited and abandoned in Canada in the late 1970s, more than 30 years ago.
Completely banning chrysotile is not necessary or appropriate because doing so will not protect workers or the public from past uses that have been prohibited for many years now.
Since 1988, all federal, provincial and territorial regulations on health and safety in Canada that pertain directly or indirectly to working with or around asbestos are consistent with the International Labour Organization's 1986 Convention concerning Safety in the Use of Asbestos, Convention 162.
Canada was one of the leaders in the development of this convention.
The purpose of the regulations is to prevent consumers from being exposed to products containing asbestos, the fibres of which can detach, be inhaled and thus be harmful to health.