Canada Update

Canada Update

27th November 2006

Document contradicts Ottawa on asbestos

MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT ENVIRONMENT REPORTER, Toronto Globe and Mail

28th November 2006

Canada uses its international prestige to promote asbestos so low-cost, foreign producers of the controversial mineral won't drive Quebec's asbestos miners out of business, according to a federal document.

The document, written for Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, contradicts the federal government's long-standing public position that its efforts to encourage what it calls the "safe use" of asbestos are purely for public-health reasons, and not for commercial gains by Canadian companies.

Senior bureaucrats prepared the document as part of a briefing in May for Mr. Lunn to explain why Canada should oppose an effort by the Rotterdam Convention, a UN-organized body, to place the chrysotile variety of asbestos on the list of the world's most hazardous manufactured substances, which would have been a damaging image blow.

Ottawa says it promotes asbestos because the material's cancer risks are overblown, and in any case can be mitigated with proper precautions. Based on its assertion that asbestos can be used without undue harm, Canada has worked for years to block international regulatory efforts against the material.

Chrysotile is the type of asbestos now in worldwide use and is produced domestically in Quebec by Jeffrey Mine Inc. of Asbestos, and LAB Chrysotile Inc. of Thetford Mines.

The effort to place chrysotile on the Rotterdam list was blocked last month, with Canada taking a leadership role in scuttling the attempt.

The document indicates that federal officials believe there is a type of informal quid pro quo operating in the industry, with Canada using its good image abroad to promote asbestos, in return for foreign companies treating Canadian miners with kid gloves in the battle for market share.

"Foreign producers tolerate higher-cost Canadian producers because of Canada's leadership and credibility in promoting the safe use of chrysotile," the document says.

Natural Resources is the main federal department handling asbestos issues. The document was produced by a group that included assistant deputy minister Gary Nash, the former head of the Montreal-based Chrysotile Institute, an industry association.

In an interview, Alek Ignatow, acting director-general for industry analysis at Natural Resources, said the government review of the asbestos industry indicates Canadian companies are marginally profitable and foreign competitors could undercut them, if they chose to.

"Why would they not put Canada out of business if they could? . . . There has got to be something of interest to them to keep Canada in the business," he said.

He said the federal government has not based its analysis on how companies deal with each other through talks with foreign producers. Canada's main export rivals are in Russia, Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe and Brazil.

Although portions of the record are censored, it also indicates that if Canada flagged in its efforts to back asbestos, federal officials believe foreign companies would stop propping up the Canadian industry, using price competition to drive domestic miners out of business.

"It would also encourage the lower-cost producers to withdraw support for the Canadian chrysotile industry in that they could easily reduce prices to eliminate Canadian competition," it says.

The document was among a group of records on federal asbestos policy obtained by Ottawa-based access-to-information researcher Ken Rubin.