Madam Speaker, it is the start of a new year and Canada has a ban on asbestos. Well, that is not quite true. While I applaud the government for moving to ban this deadly substance, I am perplexed and disappointed that it has decided to allow exemptions. The final regulations have been watered down considerably. Most worrisome and troubling are the chlor-alkali plants that will be allowed to continue to use asbestos for 10 more years, despite alternatives being available.
How we get from a ban to exemptions can only be explained by heavy-duty lobbying by the asbestos industry, and a government that did not stand up for workers and their health. I say this because there is no evidence whatsoever to the claims being made by industry to allow exemptions. The only evidence to continue exemptions is to ensure good profits for a few at the expense of many, putting at risk the health of Canadians to make a buck.
Companies will also be allowed to sift through mining waste with asbestos concentrations of up to 40% to look for magnesium. I need to add that there will be no big-wig CEO sifting through asbestos-laden mining waste. Workers trying to make a living will be the ones putting not only their lives on the line but the health of their families, friends and communities.
Kathleen Ruff, who has campaigned for years for a ban on asbestos, is also disappointed that the government has “weakened their proposed regulations and succumbed to lobbying by vested interests”. The government promised three years ago that it would bring in a comprehensive ban on asbestos, the deadliest industrial killer, yet the regulations that have just gone into effect have been weakened by allowing exemptions. Between the time the proposed regulations were made public in January 2018 and the time the final regulations were published in late October, the government had added new exemptions.
In his promise to ban asbestos, the Prime Minister said, “We know that its impact on workers far outweighs any benefits that it might provide”, but the final regulations contradict this statement.
The government estimates that asbestos exposure was responsible for approximately 1,900 lung cancer cases in 2011 and 430 cases of mesothelioma. According to these statistics, throughout the duration of Canada's proposed seven-year to 10-year time-limited exclusion, asbestos will be the cause of cancer for over 16,000 individuals in Canada.
Just yesterday, the Minister of Health talked about the government's commitment to helping Canadians take action to prevent cancer, and I agree. I would suggest that a total, comprehensive ban on asbestos should be a priority for a minister of health committed to preventing cancer, yet the Quebec and federal governments have both contributed millions of dollars in funding for Alliance Magnesium to extract magnesium from decades of asbestos mine tailings in Quebec.
Now that the government has finally acknowledged the dangers of asbestos to human health, it makes no sense that its ban on asbestos allows so many exemptions. Will the government immediately move to disallow these dangerous exemptions, stand up once and for all to the asbestos lobby, and protect the health of workers and all Canadians?