Mr. Speaker, asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever know and yet Canada remains one of the largest producers of asbestos in the world, dumping 220,000 tonnes per year into developing nations.
Most developed nations have banned asbestos in all of its forms: the entire European Union, Japan, Australia and many other countries.
On October 4, the United States Senate unanimously passed bill 742, the ban asbestos in America bill.
However, Canada continues to allow asbestos to be used in construction materials, textile products and even, unbelievably, children's toys, and it spends millions of dollars subsidizing the asbestos industry and blocking international efforts to curb its use.
Canada should ban asbestos in all its forms, institute a just transition program for workers who may be displaced, end all government subsidies of asbestos in both Canada and abroad, and stop blocking international health and safety conventions designed to protect workers from asbestos, like the Rotterdam convention.