BÉCANCOUR, QC and THETFORD, QC, Aug. 7, 2024 /CNW/ -- Deep Sky the Canadian carbon removal project developer has made significant progress on its carbon removal projects in Québec The work includes pre-feasibility studies in Bécancour and Thetford Mines to assess the geologic potential for carbon storage Thoughtful community engagement work is underway in each location ensuring transparent communication with local residents and stakeholders The long-term goal for both projects is to provide carbon storage to Québec's industrial sector as the province aims to become a leader in decarbonization Deep Sky has also begun early planning of commercial carbon removal projects in Québec that would help remove the remaining emissions that are harder to abate If feasibility studies in Bécancour and Thetford Mines demonstrate the right geology for carbon storage this will be accomplished by building high-quality carbon removal facilities in both Bécancour and Thetford Mines with potential expansion opportunities in other regions of the province The facilities will ultimately handle full-service capture and sequestration on site playing a key role in the fight against climate change Québec has all of the natural resources and conditions for engineered C02 removal with its vast natural resources including water Deep Sky is ensuring all preparatory steps are executed including environmental studies and geophysical surveys to confirm optimal geology before subsequent phases are deployed Deep Sky began a pre-feasibility study in July to analyze the geological characteristics of land within the Société du parc industriel et portuaire de Bécancour (SPIPB) and surrounding areas in order to confirm more precisely its potential for CO2 sequestration It's the largest 3D geology project that's ever taken place east of Manitoba The very first step is high integrity geological environmental assessments and subsurface (underground) is tested to confirm its sequestration potential This is akin to a harmless ultrasound of the ground which sends soundwaves to produce a 3D model of the below ground architecture field teams are placing acoustic detectors on the target land to measure the reflected vibrations off the underground geology The energy sources create soundwaves that penetrate over 3km towards the center of the earth These soundwaves reflect off different rock types creating a 3D 'ultrasound' of the subsurface Social acceptability began in May while the geology study began in July and will take approximately 6-8 months for final results Deep Sky is partnering with Quebec-based Geostack and with scientists at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) on the pre-feasibility study "The Société du parc industriel et portuaire de Bécancour (SPIPB) believes that CO2 capture and storage must be part of the energy transition and the aim of the geological study is to confirm whether the Bécancour subsoil is suitable for storage," said Donald Olivier the SPIPB wishes to highlight Deep Sky's commitment through its communication activities as well as the time devoted to dialoguing with citizens and companies to ensure listening and transparency." "I've been following Deep Sky's efforts to develop innovative carbon storage processes in Québec with great interest," said Donald Martel Nicolet-Becancour and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economy this initiative is a promising step towards our goal of making Québec a leader in decarbonation." a similar pre-feasibility project is being conducted to determine the mineralization potential for carbon sequestration A geophysical mapping survey is generating a better understanding of the subsurface while rock samples are being studied to determine the mineralization potential Deep Sky aims to use a process known as in-situ mineralization where CO2 is injected into underground CO2-reactive rocks When injected into subsurface mafic and ultramafic rock the CO2 dissolved in water is permanently sequestered as calcite rock and with no chance of returning to the atmosphere we believe Québec can be a leader in reversing climate change," said Fred Lalonde "Our projects in Bécancour and Thetford Mines are aimed at providing carbon storage to Québec's industrial sector as the province intends to become a leader in decarbonization Bécancour is part of the Energy Transition Valley where a collaborative ecosystem is accelerating the energy transition." "We support Deep Sky's carbon removal project in Bécancour which aims to achieve a sustainable transition that matches Quebec's ambition," said Alain Lemieux President and CEO of Vallée de la Transition Énergétique (VTE) "Supporting these decarbonization innovations allows us to contribute to accelerating Quebec's energy transition." Community engagement is a key element of Deep Sky's work in Bécancour and Thetford Mines and personalized resident and landowner outreach have been prioritized to ensure open dialogue with the community Local hiring is contributing an economic infusion to the regions and will only increase as the scale of projects increase CONTACTS: Brooks Wallace, Deep Sky, [email protected] Do not sell or share my personal information: Dundee Sustainable Technologies (DST) is forging partnerships with top gold miners as it commercializes its novel metallurgical processes which have been proven to reduce leaching time and extract more gold without using toxic materials such as cyanide The company has an ongoing agreement with the world’s biggest gold miner TSX: NGT) following a successful test work program for the utilization of DST’s cyanide free gold extraction Quebec- headquartered Dundee’s CLEVR Process uses a mild bleach solution in fully closed loop the fast kinetic of the chemical reaction that separates gold from ore releases gold within about 2 hours versus over 24 hours in traditional cyanide leaching – enabling operators increased efficiency and to eliminate the need for tailings ponds CLEVR uses sodium hypochlorite rather than elemental chlorine with a catalytic amount of sodium hypobromite in acidic conditions to put the gold into solution done at ambient temperature and pressure and all chemicals are recycled within the circuit Gold extraction yields are routinely in excess of 90% while capital and operating costs are competitive with traditional processes Costs are about $20 per tonne of ore in a 10,000-tonne-per-day direct leach operation It adds up to increased gold recovery in a fraction of the time In December, Dundee Sustainable Technologies’ partner Emerita Resources Corp. (TSX – V: EMO; OTCQB: EMOTF; FSE: LLJA) achieved strong results from its ongoing metallurgical testing program for La Romanera deposit on its Iberian Belt West project one of the most productive volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) terranes spanning the border from Spain to Portugal “Testing of this post flotation process flow sheet will continue as project engineering accelerates,” Emerita said in a news release the company collaborated with ESGold Corp (CSE: ESAU | OTC: SEKZF | FSE: Z7D).  Sample tailings from ESGold’s Montauban project in Quebec were sent to Dundee’slab at Thetford Mines for metallurgical testing is a critical phase of ESGold’s Gold-Silver Green Processing Initiative which aligns cutting-edge technologies with sustainable mining practices to maximize resource recovery while minimizing environmental impact “Our collaboration with ESGold allows us to showcase the CLEVR Process as a next-generation solution for environmentally responsible mining,” Dundee Sustainable Technologies CEO Jean-Philippe Mai says “By achieving superior recovery rates and significantly reducing processing times and environmental liabilities our technology aligns perfectly with ESGold’s vision we aim to set new benchmarks for profitable and sustainable resource recovery.” and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Looking forward to see it’s implementation Dundee Sustainable Technologies (TSX: DST) is confident its cyanide-free processing technique can match cyanidation for metals recovery rates vice-president Brent Johnson says in a new video As many jurisdictions move to limit or ban cyanide Dundee Sustainable is touting its CLEVR technology as a viable alternative to gold extraction that eliminates downstream risks the company’s VP of environmental performance and sustainability said at The Northern Miner‘s London Symposium last month Dundee Sustainable Technologies’ CLEVR gold extraction process uses no cyanide and produces no toxic liquid or gassy effluents “We’re encouraging industry to send us samples of your nastier stuff We can almost guarantee we can match recovery or better it We will always do a side-by-side comparison with cyanidation.” The Northern Miner‘s interim editor-in-chief Joint venture videos are paid-for content in arrangement with The Northern Miner Republish this article News Environment, News Court Cases Environment, Fast News Policies & Terms Subscription options Republishing License Advertise By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. To learn more, click more information Accept Close The Quebec Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has issued tenders for completion of track work on the Québec Central railway rehabilitation project between Vallée-Jonction and Tring-Jonction Work is set to set this year and includes replacing rails and sleepers and reprofiling about 20 kilometres tracks Construction is expected to last about 18 months while commissioning of a section between Sainte-Marie and Vallée-Jonction is scheduled for the end of 2025 Two additional calls for tenders will be launched this spring in connection with the Québec Central railway rehabilitation project: one for work on this same section and the other for section 4 the construction of railway structures include: including the construction of 5 railway bridges and 17 culverts located along the route The Québec Central railway rehabilitation project will provide a sustainable alternative to truck freight transportation between Lévis and Thetford Mines It will thus contribute to both the economic development of the Chaudière-Appalaches region and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions The rehabilitation of the railway between Lévis and Vallée-Jonction will cost about $59.2 million and work from Vallée-Jonction to Thetford Mines has a price tag topping $440 million Ontario Construction News is the province's first digital daily construction trade newspaper that complies with Ontario Construction Act regulations for publishing notices and certificates Contact us: insights@ontarioconstructionnews.com This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Broughton Wind is a 50/50 joint venture partnership with a coalition of community and First Nations partners MONTREAL-Pattern Energy Group LP (Pattern Energy) a leader in renewable energy and transmission infrastructure announced it has signed a 30-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Hydro-Québec for its 150-megawatt (MW) Broughton Wind project located in the municipalities of Saint-Pierre-de-Broughton Sacré-Coeur-de-Jésus and Thetford Mines in Québec approximately 40 miles south of Québec City and renewable electricity to power more than 25,000 homes in Québec annually “We are proud to collaborate with Hydro-Québec on this exciting new renewable energy project,” said Hunter Armistead Pattern is leading Canada’s renewable energy industry building new ties with our Indigenous partners and supporting local communities Broughton Wind is just another example of our commitment to Quebec and Canada as we help power half a million Canadian homes.” Broughton Wind is a 50/50 joint venture partnership between Pattern Energy and a coalition of community and First Nations partners: the MRC des Appalaches The project will provide a positive and lasting economic impact by increasing and diversifying the revenues of the participating MRCs and Aboriginal communities The Broughton Wind project represents an approximately CAD $500 million investment and will bring robust economic benefits to the region building on the success of Pattern Energy’s Mont Sainte-Marguerite Wind facility in Québec The project will create up to 200 jobs during construction and other professionals from a range of disciplines 10 full-time employees will operate and maintain the facility Broughton Wind is anticipated to begin construction in 2028 and reach commercial operation in 2029 The project will double Pattern Energy’s capacity in the province Pattern Energy is the largest operator of wind power in Canada having brought 11 wind power facilities to operation across five provinces and currently operates 1,980 MW of installed capacity in the country 2024 is a chance to celebrate important milestones 2024 – Pattern Energy Group LP (Pattern Energy) Quebec’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility announced $440M in funding to reinstate the Quebec Central Railway between Vallée-Jonction and Thetford Mines on June 28 This will build upon previous work to restore the track south from Charny since the province acquired the line in 2007 This project will involve rebuilding seventeen railway bridges including the bridge over the Chaudière River near Vallée-Jonction Calls for tenders will be launched in the coming weeks The line once ran to Sherbrooke and into Vermont Although local advocates have discussed the eventual return of a passenger service the primary purpose of the investment is to shift freight from road to rail.  Transport Action Canada and its regional partner organization Groupe TRAQ support investments to protect rail corridors and shortline railways endorsing Quebec’s aim of using modal shift to cut greenhouse gas emissions and provide more economical transportation for industries Combined with the commitment to rehabilitate the railway to Gaspé this brings Quebec’s investments this year to nearly a billion dollars Photo: Switch at Vallée-Jonction railway yard (source) Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account – When his coach asked Quincy Guerrier about joining an elite basketball program in Thetford Mines the Montreal teen had no idea where the town with the English name even was Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience “I thought it was in the United States,” he recounted recently Known for producing Quebec Nordiques goalie Mario (Goose) Gosselin as well as millions of tons of asbestos Thetford Mines would have ranked near the bottom of any list of basketball hotbeds But Guerrier had faith in coach Igor Rwigema and signed on to his project to introduce top-tier basketball to this out-of-the-way corner of Quebec Guerrier has a conditional scholarship offer from a major U.S university and is starring on a Thetford team that takes on players from Canadian universities and top American prep schools Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. “I have a goal in life: to go far with basketball,” the 6-foot-6 guard said one recent night Thetford Mines is an unlikely place to chase that dream for Guerrier and his teammates who are mostly – like him – black kids from multi-ethnic Montreal The 2011 census found that 99% of town’s 26,750 residents were white and 97% of them spoke French as their mother tongue Indo-Canadian comedian Sugar Sammy jokes that when he was heading to play a show in Thetford Mines “You know you’re in a white town when even the people cleaning your hotel room are white,” the comedian says is named for the asbestos mines that propelled its economy for more than a century Health and environmental concerns pushed the industry into decline beginning in the 1980s But asbestos remains central to the region’s identity from the barren mountains of tailings that shape the landscape to the plaque downtown commemorating Joseph Fecteau’s 1876 discovery of asbestos fibres in a shining rock while he was out blueberry picking.Driving around Thetford Mines even a funeral home with the word “amiante” – French for asbestos – in their names The disappearance of the one-industry town’s industry is part of the reason basketball has arrived in Thetford Mines At the town’s CEGEP – the college that Quebec students attend after finishing high school in Grade 11 – administrators have been struggling for years to reverse a decline in enrollment brought on by an aging population families and young people left the region in search of jobs “A generation left Thetford at that time,” Robert Rousseau director of the CEGEP de Thetford said of the collapse of the asbestos industry “They are not here to have children to go to CEGEP.” the college identified elite sports as a way of attracting student-athletes and creating a school spirit that would make it attractive to non-athletes one of which is good enough to play Canadian university teams,” Rousseau said The number of students has climbed back to almost 1,100 is the man who brought basketball to the former mining town He arrived in Canada from Kinshasa with his family “My granddaddy used to be the right hand man of Mobutu (Sese Seko who was overthrown as president of the central African country in 1997),” Rwigema said “They were looking to hurt the family.” They escaped to Gatineau He played through CEGEP and into university But after his second year playing at Université du Québec à Montréal he decided he enjoyed coaching youth basketball more than playing He began a summer team in Montreal for his younger brother and other kids from the Congolese community and they called themselves the Okapi Ballers after a zebra-like animal native to Congo “It happened some of them were the best players in Quebec at the time,” he says That team grew into a successful club called QC United but Rwigema felt his potential to shape the players was limited because at the end of the summer He dreamed of creating a year-round basketball academy modeled on travelling prep school teams that are important recruiting grounds for American universities where his players – most of them from disadvantaged backgrounds – faced constant temptations pulling them away from school and the gym “The fact we can control what they’re doing from when they get up to when they sleep about 370 kilometres northeast of Montreal A friend of Rwigema working at the CEGEP there said the school was hungry for new students and was thinking of starting a basketball program Did Rwigema think his program could take root there At first he thought there might be a handful of kids willing to make the trek to Alma and the academy was unable to attract elite squads from Ontario and the U.S and Rwigema and his assistant Ibrahim Appiah moved the academy to Thetford Mines With 45 players attending Thetford’s CEGEP and main high school the arrival in 2014 made an immediate splash the majority of the Thetford population are white and all of a sudden four basketball teams arrive and 80% of these kids are black,” says Rousseau “You have just added colour to the town.” With one seven-footer but the reception has been very good,” Rousseau says “I think people remarked more on their height than the colour of their skin destroy visitors from the Université de Sherbrooke 114-43 Emmanuel Baril said his young children are excited to attend the basketball games “They talk about going to see the ‘tall black guys,’” he said has been with the academy since its first year in Alma He is set to graduate this year and has committed to play for Nipissing University in North Bay next fall Raised by his mother after the death of his father he said getting out of the city helped him “grow as a man and as a basketball player … It kept me away from all the distractions from all the bad things that happen in Montreal.” he and his black teammates would get suspicious looks He has found Thetford Mines to be much more welcoming who is also graduating this year and is headed for Ottawa’s Carleton University has arguably experienced the greatest culture shock of all the players He is from French Guyana on the northeast coast of South America “I had never seen towns like this before coming to Canada,” he said “towns that could be so quiet – so cold too.” BUT he said he was immediately interested in Rwigema’s academy because North America is where the best basketball is played His dream is to play in Europe’s top professional league but first he plans to earn a university degree “Coming here is the best decision I could have made for my basketball and for everything,” he said The players have to love basketball to make the commitment with players agreeing to follow the strict rules laid out in a “We Are Thetford” handbook players are forbidden from drinking alcohol or going out to bars pants must not slip below the waist and rooms must be kept tidy Penalties range from pushups (as many as 800 for disrespecting a coach) to expulsion they must pass at least four of the five courses they take each semester if they want to keep playing Enforcing the rules is easier in a small town where Rwigema says there are only three bars and the owners know to call him if a towering basketball player shows up Rwigema offers an appraisal that will not show up on any tourism brochures There’s nothing attractive for our guys,” he says If the young men are prepared to sacrifice it is because they see the academy as their best shot at basketball success short of attending a U.S “If you want to have a chance to play at the next level you should come to Thetford,” Rwigema says 28 players will have gone on to play Canadian or American university basketball in the academy’s first four years By far the biggest success story is Chris Boucher of Montreal then went to junior colleges in New Mexico and Wyoming before moving to Oregon University this year Oregon is ranked ninth in the country by the Associated Press is leading the team in rebounds and blocked shots while averaging 12.5 points a game an Oregon assistant coach who first spotted Boucher when he was playing for Alma at a U.S said the success of a player like Boucher will fuel interest in what Rwigema is building in Thetford Mines and your program has the capacity to develop a player of Chris’s caliber clearly you’re going to get some attention particularly if you’ve got some other guys coming up who show the same promise,” he said principal Jean Roberge still marvels at the thought that this hockey town could become known as a hothouse for basketball talent he moved here 18 years ago to play semi-pro hockey after graduating from university “There is not much of a basketball culture in Thetford,” Roberge said when the academy’s top team performed spectacular dunks and drained three-pointers in a near-empty gym while hundreds gathered to watch snowmobile drag races on a closed-off downtown street Roberge hopes the population will pay more attention as the success of Boucher and other players shines a spotlight on the program “Suddenly there is credibility and renown associated with basketball here,” he said Rwigema is also hoping the attention could attract a corporate sponsorship but the program still runs on a tight budget said he wants to get the business community behind the drive to make Thetford a basketball capital “A lot of these kids are coming out of difficult environments,” he said “Getting them out of that and having them finish their studies and play basketball is a double goal that is very noble.” Guerrier stands to be the next big star to emerge from the academy He has been offered a scholarship to follow Boucher at Oregon provided he maintains his marks and his basketball continues to progress The 16-year-old says he is glad to have escaped Montreal where “there are a lot of street gangs and things like that,” even if it means being apart from his mother and two younger siblings “My mother said she wants me to realize my dream,” he said “I feel like it’s not a dream but more a reality I think I will get to where I want to go.” Along the way he will have done his bit to put Thetford Mines on the basketball map transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You can manage saved articles in your account When Willie Randolph hoisted back-to-back World Series trophies with the 1977 and ’78 New York Yankees, or Omar Moreno toasted the World Series title won by his Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 one wonders if they took a moment to think how far they had come since the day they played for a crowd of 69 people in Quebec City That’s right: A paid attendance only slightly larger than the array of players, coaches, batboys, and umpires on the field. And for a doubleheader, no less — 14 innings of Double-A Eastern League baseball.1 From a big-league viewpoint But that sort of thing can happen in the minor leagues when ballpark problems combine with wicked weather — as they did in Thetford Mines a little more than 60 miles from Thetford Mines arranged to use the Carnavals’ 4,500-seat home field for a May 5 doubleheader against the Reading (Pennsylvania) Phillies as no one in Quebec City cared much about either team wintry weather was the rule that week throughout the Eastern League — to the point that the turnout for the Reading-Thetford Mines doubleheader wasn’t even the smallest crowd of the week a 24-year-old whom Pittsburgh had drafted out of a Michigan high school in 1968 walking 55 and striking out 33 in 65 innings With roughly one out of every 65 seats in the ballpark occupied,13 the Phillies and Pirates took the field for the first game and proceeded to play as if they had a train to catch … a warm Thomas scattered two singles — one to pitcher Gratz and one to left fielder Ken Melvin — walked three Reading turned a pair of double plays behind him to ease any threats allowed the Phillies only two walks and four singles — two by left fielder Willibaldo Quintana and one apiece by Andrews and second baseman Blas Santana Thetford Mines turned three double plays of its own to keep Reading at bay Reading went on to finish the season 69-66 with one tie, placing third of four teams in the Eastern League’s National Division. Unfortunately for the Phillies, only the top two in each division qualified for the playoffs. Nosing them out were the Carnavals, at 76-64 and one tie, and Thetford Mines, one game back at 75-65. Reading’s season highlight came August 20 when Thomas threw a no-hitter, the fourth of five in the Eastern League that season.18 the championship game was the Thetford Mines Pirates’ final contest Pittsburgh moved its Double-A affiliate to Shreveport The Milwaukee Brewers moved their Double-A team from Shreveport to Thetford Mines for 1975 then moved it to Western Massachusetts the following year Thetford Mines has not hosted affiliated minor-league ball since then In addition to the sources cited in the Notes I consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player Neither Baseball-Reference nor Retrosheet provides box scores of minor-league games edition of the Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle published a box score 1 The Eastern League 2 Tim Murtaugh managed in the Pirates’ farm system from 1971 through 1977. He was a former minor-league catcher and the son of the Pirates’ manager at the time, Danny Murtaugh. 3 Bob Hepburn “Beating Around the Bush League,” Vancouver (British Columbia) Sun Weekend Magazine 4 “Eastern League,” The Sporting News 5 “Eastern League,” May 11 6 “Beating Around the Bush League.” 7 Roger O’Gara End Stand at Home with Thetford Tonight,” Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield 8 “Reading Gets Cold Treatment,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle The text of the article indicates that a source in Quebec was providing updates to the Pennsylvania paper 9 Associated Press 10 “Eastern League,” The Sporting News 11 Historical weather data for Quebec City accessed via weatherunderground.com 12 List of Eastern League yearly award winners accessed via Baseball-Reference BR Bullpen on October 6 The page mistakenly refers to Macha’s team as the Thetford Mines Miners the name used by all of the city’s other minor-league teams 13 Based on a ballpark capacity of 4,500, as listed on the Baseball-Reference BR Bullpen page for Stade Municipale 14 Armas led the AL outright in 1984 with 43 homers for the Boston Red Sox and tied with three other players to co-lead the AL in strike-shortened 1981 with 22 homers 15 “Phillies’ Trip Is One Big UGH!,” Reading Eagle 16 “Phillies’ Trip Is One Big UGH!” 17 Duke DeLuca 18 List of Eastern League no-hitters on milb.com, accessed October 5, 2020. The other four no-hit pitchers in 1974 were Odell Jones of Thetford Mines, Stan Williams and Curran Percival of Bristol 19 “Beating Around the Bush League.” 20 Roger O’Gara “Tim Murtaugh Wins; How About Danny?” The Sporting News 21 “Thetford Wins,” Vancouver Sun, September 9, 1974: 29. Only one other Canadian team has ever won an Eastern League championship — the London (Ontario) Tigers in 1990. List of Eastern League champions accessed via Baseball-Reference BR Bullpen on October 6 If you can help us improve this game story, contact us Minor Leagues · 1970s · Meet the Staff Board of Directors Annual Reports Inclusivity Statement Contact SABR billd@acm.org) nearly half of the seats at the stadium were discounted in hopes of increasing attendance; it was the third time in three years that prices were lowered and attendance increased by 26 percent The next year the Als would play the first professional event at the brand new Olympic Stadium in front of a record crowd of 68,505 and many including  Montreal Gazette journalist Earl McRae would not miss the vapid facility mournful stadium on a desolate section along the St Rats scurried brazenly throughout the structure mousetraps were scattered by the hundreds to catch them and rainwater poured through the ceiling of team offices..” Autostade was almost home to the National League expansion Montreal Expos in 1969 The plan was for the stadium to serve as a temporary venue for the club before a $35 million 55,000-seat domed stadium would open in time for the 1971 season The plan was also to expand the seating from 25,000 to 40,000 and cover it with a domed roof Initial costs were estimated to be $5 million but quickly swelled to $7 million a pricey sum for a temporary ballpark that included a paved track around the field The choice was then made for the Expos to convert Jarry Park into a temporary major league ballpark and would use it for the next 9 seasons The dimensions and location close to downtown made it the most logical choice for the baseball club football and baseball were attracting huge crowds to Olympic Stadium leading to the eventual closure of Autostade Around the same time minor league baseball in Thetford Mines was coming to an end after two seasons The old wooden ballpark was home to the Thedford Mines Miners from 1953-1956 in the Provincial League but had been absent for almost two decades until the Pittsburgh Pirates placed an Eastern League franchise in the city in 1974 The placement was temporary but the club captured the league championship and featured future All-Stars Willie Randolph and Tony Armas the year before was shocked by conditions in Thetford Mines as he recalled in Yankee Magazine in 2016 " It was kind of a makeshift situation because the team wasn't planning to play there and the ballpark we were playing in didn't even have clubhouses We had to get dressed at a hockey rink and walk over to the ballpark Randolph added that the field was so bad that the team manager Tim Murtaugh--who  said in the book Beating the Bushes that “an empty lot was cleared a canvas backdrop was tossed up and someone hollered "Play ball!"-- would not allow his players out on the field He would recant in 1989 to the Los Angeles Times "It was so bad they had to condemn it and they had these big steamrollers on the field one of the steamrollers sank down about 10 feet The Bucs drew a season crowd of 22,516 for an average of 322 fans and would leave town at the end of the year The Milwaukee Brewers replaced them but attracted a dismal 16,000 fans for the final season the old ballpark was razed and just an empty grass field remained went the unconventional route--they bought themselves pieces of a football stadium They then reassembled into what would be used as a 5,000-seat baseball stadium that included three sections and a press box from what was once Autostade the City of Thetford Mines handed a memorandum to the Minister of Urban Affairs to purchase five sections of Autostade to replace the old stadium park and revive the land the sections were purchased and construction began in August 1979 and reconstruct the bleachers to its new home The park would be home to softball for the next 33 years hosting the 1982 Senior Men's Canadian Fastpitch Championships that attracted large attendance figures brought baseball to the stadium with the Thetford Blue Sox a semi-professional team in the Ligue de Baseball Senior Élite du Québec and team headquarters were established beneath the stands the Sox have won six league championships and draw between 500 and 1,000 fans per game Professional baseball returned in 2014 for one game when the city hosted the Quebec Capitales of the Can-Am League for an exhibition game and 5,000 spectators filled the stands on Canada Day Baseball is thriving once again during the summer months in Thetford Mines but one has to scratch their heads and wonder why its existence appears to be an enigma to most people It appears to many that the remnants of Autostade make up Stade des Caisses Desjardins but perhaps there is a reason for it There was little fanfare in Montreal when the CFL stadium was torn down; the stadium was in service for a decade and was quickly put out of mind once Olympic Stadium opened the ballpark was never to be converted into a temporary baseball facility for the Expos This could have thrust the venue’s attention to major league cities and with copious video footage and former players' testimonies might have left a little more resonance on the public's attention in Montreal it looked decorative for visitors during Expo ‘67; however there was not too much time for anyone to reminisce or become teary-eyed about the place especially when the Alouettes averaged over 54,000 fans per game during the first two seasons at Olympic Stadium Stade des Caisses Desjardins is the home of amateur baseball during the summer months in Thetford Mines they are sitting in stands that were once created to watch professional football in Montreal more than 55 years ago Who knew the legacy of Autostade is still alive and well in Quebec Stadiumjourney.com It was 43 years ago that the cities of Somersworth Canada forged the path to a friendship between the two communities when they became sister cities The original twinning of the city was brought about by the creation of the Somersworth International Children’s Festival and then Mayor George Bald That relationship was reignited once more with a visit from Thetford Mines Mayor Marc-Alexandre Brousseau accompanied by a delegation of seven to the Hilltop City on Tuesday Hilliard and city staff and Mayor Hilliard proclaimed the day as “Thetford Mines Day.”  Many Somersworth residents have their roots in Thetford Mines as many of their ancestors took to work in the textile mills in Somersworth The two Mayors last met in 2016 when Mayor Hilliard travelled to Thetford Mines and was himself welcomed with open arms by the mainly French speaking community Coincidentally the two Mayors have both served their respective communities for 10 years a fact that did not escape either of them during the visit As the Canadian party arrived four days before St John the Baptist Day it seemed appropriate that the flag of Quebec was raised by Mayor Brousseau at Citizens Place and it will fly above the Hilltop City for the next week as the city's tradition After a tour of Somersworth City Hall the party took a walk along Main street to the Summersworth Historical Museum where they learned about some of the rich history of their sister city Then it was time for dinner at Anatolia Mediterranean Restaurant before the parties bid each other farewell The party from Thetford Mines traveled to Lowell on their departure and expressed their desire to return to the Hilltop City in the near future The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission Environmental AdvancesCitation Excerpt :Catchment vegetation in the upper part of the BRB is characterized by mixed deciduous and coniferous tree assemblages that mainly include sugar maple (Acer saccharum) Sediment cores (one per lake; 1.1–1.3 m in length) from Lake Bécancour (BEC) and Lake Joseph (JOS) were retrieved between June and August 2017 in the central deepest part of these water bodies (Jacques and Pienitz The sediment core from the Bécancour River's outlet (RBEC; 0.5 m in length) was collected later in September 2019 at the bottom (ca All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. but can Asbestos ever escape the shadow cast by its history Nestled amid the rolling green countryside of south-eastern Quebec is a place that has been described as the most dangerous town in Canada This quiet settlement, just east of a kink in the Nicolet River, thrived on a valuable mineral hidden in the rocks beneath it for more than 110 years Mining was so important to the local economy that the town adopted its name – welcome to Asbestos Home to the world’s largest asbestos mine until 2012 the town was changed forever when the poisonous nature of the mineral that gave it its name and identity forced the mine to close for good The closure of the Jeffrey mine signalled the end of an industry that had provided steady, dependable employment for generations but had also taken its toll on the health and wellbeing of the local population The mine also left another legacy almost as contentious as the mineral it extracted – the name of the town itself. Local businesses, for example, encountered difficulties trying to cross the nearby US border with products or vehicles bearing the word “asbestos” Yet in 2006, the town’s municipal council voted unanimously to hang on to the name and it has since stuck by the decision For a place that owes its existence to a now increasingly banned substance – progressing out of the shadow of the mine has involved imagination and risk-taking But Asbestos may finally be shrugging off its toxic past Asbestos is the name given to a naturally occurring set of six silicate-based minerals that form long, fibrous crystals. It has been mined around the world since ancient times for its tough During the nineteenth century, settlers discovered that south-eastern Quebec contained several substantial asbestos deposits these deposits were big enough to justify large-scale mining Once known as the ‘magic mineral’, became a much-utilised resource in many industries, particularly in construction – where it was commonly used as insulation – and ship-building. As recently as 2008, India was still importing asbestos in large quantities from Canadian mines Today, the huge open-pit mine at Asbestos lies silent, but it has left a gaping scar around 1,140 feet (350 metres) deep and more than two sq miles (six sq kilometres) in size. Canada is still struggling with the deadly legacy of the substance removed from this hole. Years after the mining ceased, Quebec leads Canada in reported cases of mesothelioma This year, the federal government will finally ban the "manufacture, use, import and export" of asbestos and products that contain it The fact that this deadly substance is only being completely banned this year decades after other countries made its use illegal indicates how long asbestos has been an important part of Canada’s export economy has had to find other ways to support its population But it is a challenge that residents of the town have risen to with surprising energy Danick Pellerin’s story is one that many younger Asbestos citizens can relate to Born to a generation that witnessed the final years of the industry in the town along with a desire to play his part in re-invigorating the town he founded the Moulin 7 microbrewery with the help of provincial government funding “Some people can have a dim view of this community but it’s obvious that there is a whole lot going on We had the water analysed and it is perfect People wanted to taste itSetting up a brewery in a town called Asbestos might not seem like a shrewd business move at first Especially as the brewery is located just over 300 feet (100m) from the edge of the open mine Pellerin and St-Hilaire whole-heartedly celebrate their link to the town’s mining heritage and the pair have tried to reflect the town’s history in the names of their beers Among its products are a lager called Mineur (Miner) and an American pale ale called Spello – a mining term for a short break The pair even brew a white Indian Pale Ale called ‘La Ciel Ouvert’ (The Open Sky) using water taken from a lake that has accumulated at the bottom of the mine “We had the water analysed and it is perfect,” he says The award-winning brewery is now draws Quebec’s many bikers who stop off at Asbestos while touring the countryside but people come regardless,” explains Pellerin and we’re hoping to increase production by 30% next year.” Pellerin is confident the town is finding its feet again with experiences in the cities and from further afield,” he says “I think they’re coming back to a place that has changed recognises that the roughly 7,000 inhabitants of Asbestos faced a major challenge when a controversial $58 million Canadian ($45 million US) government loan to support the mine was cancelled in 2012 The town has seen a decades-long exodus as the industry has waned, with its population falling from more than 10,000 inhabitants at the mine’s peak in the 1970s, to just over 6,000 in 1999 the year the UK fully banned asbestos imports   The mine’s final shuttering was a blow but it hasn’t resulted in a fresh exodus“For us the important thing was to be optimistic,” says Grimard “To rise to the challenge that the government had left us with We worked to bring everyone (in the community) together – industry And there has been some encouraging news since the last census in 2011 with unemployment in the town falling from 12.4% to 7.6% in 2016 The town did have assets beyond the mine to help begin the recovery – the proximity of the US border made it home to several transportation companies while agriculture has provided a fall-back employer Responsiveness is also part of the town’s strategy now Since the last census in 2011 unemployment in the town fell from 12.4% to 7.6% in 2016“That way we can respond as a priority,” says Grimard I can say that we have met this challenge in diversifying our economy.” One big win since the mine closed has been the establishment of a regional processing centre for one of Canada’s more gourmet food products – ducks It provides jobs for over a hundred workers and a ‘now hiring’ sign still hangs outside the factory The town’s association with a product like asbestos hasn’t stood in the way of the company behind the facility, Brome Lake Ducks. With increasing demand from Canadian consumers and access to a new market for duck meat sales in Mexico the company is aiming to produce four million ducks per year by 2020 But the drive to rebuild the town’s economy isn’t restricted to food and drink In the hills surrounding Asbestos is another resource aside from the once-prized minerals – snow Just a few minutes north of the town lies the ski resort of Mont Gleason which is a major seasonal employer in the area during Quebec’s snowy winters the resort is set to celebrate 100 years in operation in December Mont Gleason differs from many European commercial ski resorts by operating as a not-for-profit It has four ski lifts and almost 10 km of slopes While the work at Mont Gleason tends to evaporate in the spring along with the snow during the winter it provides regular employment “We have more than 250 people working in the winter season” explains Maryse Gingras who heads up sustainable development at the ski resort but we also employ a lot of students and retired people They’re all in very different kinds of positions – with people working the chair lifts Gingras points to constant re-investment as a major reason that Mont Gleason has stayed viable even through tough economic periods and harsh winters “[This year] we have had good growth in numbers,” notes Gingras “We are planning to add a new four-person chair lift and re-model the chalets in the coming two years Walking around Asbestos and the surrounding area it is hard not to notice the legacy of its mining past littering the landscape the towering piles of debris left by mining activity These mounds of crushed rock and minerals are still piled up close to homes and buildings There have been attempts in the past to make use of this mining waste. Mine tailings were used in the town of Thetford Mines to provide extra grip on the roads during winter, for instance, but the practice was swiftly stopped amid concerns over its impact on air quality renewed interest in these tailings from industries that are hoping to re-mine them for other valuable chemicals the tailings have a high magnesium content which is in high demand for consumer electronics like mobile phones and electric cars With talk of trade sanctions against China – currently the world’s main supplier of magnesium – being openly discussed by the current US administration Asbestos could find a new lucrative trade for the waste left by its former industry Whether this will result in long-term jobs in the area remains to be seen A similar project set up prior to the closure of Jeffrey Mine eventually ran out of cash but Alliance Magnesium insists that improved greener extraction technologies that set it apart from those earlier ventures Another very different type of mining could potentially make its way to the Asbestos region too one of the province’s largest Bitcoin mining operations has popped up to the tune of $250 million Canadian ($195 million US) and the cryptocurrency firm BitFarms is expanding across southern Quebec In March, local media reported on potential plans for a cryptocurrency operation at the abandoned mine works at Thetford Mines Cheap electricity plus large facilities and pre-existing large-scale electrical connections make it an attractive site But Asbestos Mayor Hugues Grimard is careful not to commit too readily to the idea of something similar in Asbestos but adds that priority needs to be given to developments that stimulate the local economy Quebec premier Philippe Couillard meanwhile has expressed scepticism regarding the proliferation of cryptocurrency mining facilities around the province doubting the actual benefit to communities But even without this sort of high-tech industry there can be no doubt that Asbestos is undergoing a transformation that could see the town emerge from the cloud cast by the mineral it supplied around the world the name of their town is something they intend to be proud of To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook  page or message us on Twitter If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". 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Explore the tiny biodegradable pacemaker for newbornsResearchers have created a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice that does not require open surgery to implant. Why you might be younger than you think you areThere is a difference between our chronological and biological age, which we have the power to control. Comments are automatically closed one year after article publication It’s easy to be cavalier about mesothelioma – until someone in your family dies from it If these tailings are to be worked for magnesium should be fully reclaimed by covering with overburden and top soil Going forward we should stay away from asbestos deposits – and maximize the recycling of all metals as much as possible Top: A mining well at Beaver mine, a former asbestos site in Quebec, Canada. Visual: Directory of Quebec Cultural Heritage Welcome to the reboot of The Undark Podcast which will deliver — once a month from September to May — a feature-length exploration of a single topic at the intersection of science and society join reporter Emma Jacobs and podcast host Lydia Chain as they pull back the curtain on the companies trying to transform the dregs of asbestos mining into profitable products — and the health officials who fear this new industry will awaken an old problem Below is the full transcript of the podcast, lightly edited for clarity. You can also subscribe to The Undark Podcast at Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, or Spotify Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Lydia Chain: Emma Jacobs is a multimedia journalist based in Montreal Her reporting for this story was made possible in part by a fellowship from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources Our theme music is produced by the Undark team and additional music in today’s episode comes from Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value" 22-Jul-2024 Last updated on 22-Jul-2024 at 15:48 GMT The second major acquisition by the manufacturer on the continent Appalaches Nature is a major supplier of maple syrup to European markets and a growing supplier to Canda and the US It is also the second Canada-based maple syrup business to be acquired by Valeo Foods following its purchase of Les Industries Bernard & Fils (Bernard) in 2022 Valeo’s acquisition included Appalaches’ 100,000 sq The manufacturer planned to integrate the Appalaches business alongside Bernard where synergies permit This would include complimentary manufacturing capabilities which Valeo hoped would support the accelerated growth of the combined business enable it to significantly increase production capacity to meet growing customer demand and to facilitate further expansion across Europe and internationally The day-to-day operations of Appalaches Nature will continue to be led by the existing management team in close collaboration with the management of Bernard – led by the fifth generation of the Bernard family Valeo’s purchase of Appalaches Nature comes three months after its acquisition of leading Italian bakery products manufacturer Dal Colle for an undisclosed fee Valeo chief executive Ronald Kers said: “Dal Colle is a fantastic addition to the Valeo Foods portfolio which already boasts many of Europe’s finest and most established brands with deep heritage and connections with consumers.​ “It also adds considerable new manufacturing and logistical capabilities to our Italian platform which will support our growth ambitions in Italy and across Europe.​ This is very consistent with our vision to position Valeo Foods as the undisputed European sweet treats champion.” Meanwhile, Yorkshire-based Regal Food Products Group has announced the acquisition of Love Cheesecakes, its third desserts business since 2022. Love Cheesecakes appeared on BBC TV show Dragons’ Den in 2020 which helped boost its online profile and has contributed to the growth of its eCommerce platform. Pets Choice acquires vegan dog food manufacturer16-Jul-2024By William DoddsPets Choice has announced the acquisition of HOWND from Power Pet Brands. Marston’s sale to Carlsberg ‘worrying development for British brewing’10-Jul-2024By William DoddsConcerns have been raised about the trajectory of the UK brewing industry after Marston’s sold its stake in Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC). Diageo agrees to sell liqueur brand for undisclosed fee08-Jul-2024By William DoddsDiageo has reached an agreement with Casa Redondo to sell liqueur brand Safari. Sharing innovation for net zero gainPaid for and content provided by European Union Why food and drink manufacturers need to embrace – rather than fear – artificial intelligencePaid for and in partnership with QAD Redzone From waste to worth: how F&B manufacturers can turn challenges into strategic winsPaid for and content provided by Biffa Ottawa gave $12 million on Friday to help a company extract magnesium from the waste of closed asbestos mines — despite warnings from Quebec's public health officers that the province's workplace protections are still lacking The federal funding for Alliance Magnesium came a day after the government unveiled its national ban against the use which carves out an exemption for mining residues Alliance Magnesium has developed technology to extract magnesium from the more than 800 million tonnes of asbestos tailings near the now-closed mines in the Quebec towns of Thetford Mines and Asbestos Company president Joel Fournier told The Canadian Press the technology involves destroying the asbestos left in the tailings in acid and said workers are well protected during the process the public health directors of all 18 Quebec health regions warned Environment Minister Catherine McKenna earlier this year that exempting mine residues from the asbestos ban was risky without proper workplace safety standards in place allows for asbestos exposure that is 10 times greater than the national standard and 100 times greater than the standards put in place in many European countries The health directors said extracting magnesium is one option to remediate the sites containing asbestos tailings but warned the process can generate toxic dust beyond just asbestos fibres and proper precautions must be required Other options for remediation could include burying the tailings back inside the holes left by the mines or establishing a safety perimeter around the tailings to allow for the sites to be covered over by natural vegetation In a letter to the Quebec health officials earlier this year McKenna said she was "satisfied that these proposed regulations will address the health risks associated with asbestos mining residues." asbestos was a popular material for use in hundreds of products like insulation The World Health Organization says all forms of asbestos cause cancer mesothelioma cancer and asbestosis lung disease are the leading cause of workplace-related death Some countries began banning asbestos in the 1990s and the European Union barred it in 2005 But Canada resisted a ban for years and prevented the most common form of asbestos from being added to an international list of toxic substances that can't be exported without warnings attached Canada's objections largely stemmed from the existence of the two Quebec mines and Canada continued to export the product to countries that were found not to have sufficient protections in place for the workers who were exposed to it largely because demand for asbestos was so low and in 2016 the Liberals announced they would ban its use The regulations enacting that ban were approved by cabinet in September and take effect on December 31 Asbestos disease can take several decades to appear and the incidence of it and deaths from it are rising a 75 per cent increase in annual deaths since 2000 but that figure does not include Quebec data because that province no longer reports the incidence to Statistics Canada The Quebec public health officials said in their note to Environment Canada last spring that incidence of mesothelioma was higher in Quebec particularly in regions near the two mines Let's overcome the climate crisis and create a promising future for all protect and restore nature so it can sustain all life Let’s reimagine communities to build resilience and increase well-being Give stocks or other publicly traded securities Help restore and protect nature for generations to come Asbestos mining industry, circa 1923. (Photo: Musée McCord via Wikimedia Commons) One of the most celebrated films in the history of French-Canadian cinema, Mon oncle Antoine opens with shots of an asbestos mine in Black Lake (now Thetford Mines) in the 1940s the Thetford Mines and asbestos regions of Quebec progressed and grew richer thanks to this group of minerals the health risks of which were little understood at the time The heat-resistant properties of asbestos made it useful for many industrial applications handles for pots and pans and residential construction A whole slice of the history of Quebec and the rest of Canada is framed by the rise and fall of asbestos mining we know beyond all doubt that this substance is linked to fatal illnesses Exposure over many years by asbestos industry workers and family members who were indirectly exposed at home, as well as the larger population, has left us with a painful heritage that we will regret for a long time. In early 2016, a Canadian Press report painted a grim picture of mortality caused by asbestos exposure: “In 2012 Between 2000 and 2012…deaths from the asbestos-related malignancy jumped 60 per cent — to 467 from 292.” The World Health Organization has been warning of this product’s dangers for 30 years. Seen in that light, the recent decision by the federal government to ban the use import and export of asbestos by 2018 is long overdue That decision is a step in the right direction and one that several health specialists and environmental groups — the David Suzuki Foundation among them — have been demanding for a long time David Suzuki Foundation Quebec director Karel Mayrand wrote “We still have a long way to go to make sure asbestos stays in the ground and no longer poses a threat to human health asbestos kills 90,000 people in the world every year: that’s the equivalent of one Hiroshima per year Quebec and Ottawa must act to ban the extraction and exporting of asbestos.” You have spoken out against this industry that has been slowly killing us Asbestos will still be present in many buildings posing a variety of challenges for property managers even the slightest repair job in an affected area To simply drive a nail into an office wall to hang a picture a workplace health and safety team must be called in Decontaminating sites will take a long time But it is the right thing to do and it must be done asbestos will continue to be mined in countries that have decided to ignore science and put profits before lives has taken over from Canada as a leading irresponsible exploiter of the resource the battle against asbestos is far from over our thoughts and our voices of solidarity are with the victims this is our pledge: We will continue our fight to ensure that science and the precautionary principle light our way serving as the sole foundation for decisions that affect the environment and indeed our very existence If you are looking across Canada for places to settle down there are many things to consider including history While you certainly have a variety of options this list offers a glimpse at some of the cheapest places to live in the east coast and west coast—plus what makes each region so attractive is one of the cheapest places to live in Canada The cheapest houses in the area are typically priced under $60,000 and the cheapest one-bedroom rental unit is $500 while the average salary in the community is $62,000 Thetford Mines was one of the largest regions for asbestos production in the world however—the last asbestos mine closed in 2012 and Canada banned the sale of asbestos in 2018.) Thanks to this once-lucrative industry the boundaries of the small city expanded to merge with Pontbriand the area is one of the largest producers of maple syrup and you can participate in community outings to sugar camps You can also join parties for producing the maple syrup and trying snow-made taffy For these reasons—as well as the popular winter sports of skiing and snowmobiling—it helps if you love cold-weather activities Thetford Mines also boasts a regional airport and two world-class research centres while businesses in the region export goods around the globe – generating work in multiple fields in an ever-expanding labour market Saskatchewan offers homes for as little as $63,000 and one-bedroom rental units for as cheap as $550 Moose Jaw was once the hiding place for one of the world’s most infamous gangsters who spent a lot of time hiding in underground tunnels beneath the area those tunnels act as a major tourist attraction for the community of 36,000 residents Moose Jaw’s major economic sectors are potash mining The Canadian Forces Snowbirds Air Demonstration Squadron is also based out of the military base there Moose Jaw’s downtown also features numerous coffee shops and other unique shopping options 3 of Expedia.ca’s list of 10 Coolest Downtowns in Canada the capital city of Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the oldest cities in North America John’s is a popular destination for tourists and one of the cheapest places to live in Canada with houses going for as little as $70,000 and one-bedroom rentals going for as little as $795 With an average salary of just over $63,000 John’s more than affordable for most John’s now relies mainly on offshore oil and gas ExxonMobil Canada has its headquarters in St and Suncor Energy also have regional operations there have significant offshore oil developments in the works.  John’s was also the site where Marconi got the first transatlantic wireless message—in 1901 which commemorates the 400th anniversary of John Cabot’s voyage to Newfoundland offers one-bedroom rentals for as cheap as $850 and houses for as low as $80,000 New Glasgow is the site of major employers such as the Aberdeen Hospital and the headquarters of national grocery chain Sobeys (Stellarton) New Glasgow’s downtown core features several shops and services and has recently been the beneficiary of a revitalization project that saw the addition of the riverfront area and theatre It might seem a surprising addition to this list and it’s expensive compared with other parts of the country but home purchase and rental prices are reasonable in Surrey compared with other parts of BC The city offers houses for as little as $129,000 and one-bedroom rentals for as little as $650 The average salary in this suburban city is $73,000 What makes Surrey one of your best bets to live in Canada in terms of affordability is that its economy is bustling agriculture and technology making significant contributions to the city’s healthy economy Simon Fraser University and Kwanthlen Polytechnic University—two major post-secondary institutions—also call Surrey home Among the many attractions and annual events that keep the city busy and fireworks—attracts roughly 15,000 people each year Read more about the guide to cheapest cities in Ontario to get a mortgage A former Asbestos plant is seen February in Thetford Mines Canada has ended its refusal to allow chrysotile asbestos to be added to the U.N.'s Rotterdam Convention on hazardous materials Canada's leaders have ended their country's longstanding resistance to asbestos being called a dangerous material under United Nations guidelines a decision that reflects a shift in the leadership of Quebec province promised late in her campaign that she would shut down the region's asbestos mines for good She says that she will use money that would have gone to restart the mines to diversify the local economy As Dan Karpenchuk reports for NPR's Newscast unit: "Canadian industry minister Christian Paradis made the announcement in the town of Thetford Mines He blamed the incoming separatist government in Quebec for promising to cancel a $58 million loan that would have reopened Canada's last major asbestos mine." "Paradis says it means hundreds of workers will remain without jobs But he says it would no longer make sense for Ottawa to support the asbestos industry when Quebec The CBC reports that in 2010 "Canada was producing 150,000 tonnes of asbestos annually and exporting 90 percent — worth about $90 million — to developing countries." Canada has long been criticized for its stance on asbestos Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others have been steadfast in their support of the industry resisting efforts to include asbestos in the U.N a treaty that lists chrysotile and other forms of the material as hazardous Writing in The Toronto Star "Canada's hypocrisy on asbestos has long been malodorous Canada has banned most domestic uses of asbestos whose fire-retardant properties are greatly outweighed by its carcinogenic ones Harper has been spending millions of dollars to remove the last traces of asbestos in the Parliament Buildings and his official residence at 24 Sussex Drive." Back in 2010, NPR's Brenda Wilson summed up the broader dispute over asbestos: "On one side is the World Health Organization contending that all types cause cancer and that its continued use and other places will only prolong the epidemic of cancers related to its use The cancers can take up to 30 to 40 years to develop." "On the other side is the proud little town of Asbestos 'There's a mine in the center of town that is as deep as the Eiffel Tower is high.'" Canada's asbestos industry has been in a recent decline — earlier this year closed after it stopped receiving government support News of Canada's shift came out late Friday — evidence prefer to save problematic news for the end of the week when they can "dump" them into the mix of weekend plans and movie reviews that many people concern themselves with on Fridays Become an NPR sponsor Click here to see Canada's most comprehensive listing of projects in conceptual and planning stages Montreal carbon-capture startup Deep Sky continues to move with haste as it forges partnerships with tech specialists in the sector while defying traditional project development timelines The business model involves building plants to scrub the atmosphere and oceans of CO2 transforming the captured CO2 into minerals and storing it underground thus obtaining carbon credits and selling the credits to entities aiming to meet emissions-reduction obligations A pilot demonstration of the technology capturing 100 tonnes of CO2 annually will be built in Quebec with the aim to eventually construct commercial facilities that capture between 100,000 and one million tonnes annually Deep Sky co-founder Fred Lalonde says the firm is moving at the swift pace of the tech world in developing the pilot carbon capture and storage project in part because it has the right leadership team Airbnb and the Blackstone Group at the board table and also because of the urgency of the impending climate disaster Current climate strategies are not nearly enough given that over the last 150 years there have been more than 800 gigatonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere with the repercussions soon to be felt in ways that are not widely understood “People need to understand the problems as they really are in order to get mobilized,” said Lalonde recently there is a probably a way to come from our world and take what would normally be a 20- to 30-year timeline and condense it down to five years we can prove to the world that we can build the trillion-dollar industry that we need to remove the CO2 from the atmosphere.” he and his partner at Hopper Joost Ouwerkerk began to take the climate challenge more seriously especially given their industry created so many greenhouse gases The partners were joined at Deep Sky by Laurence Tosi the former CFO of Airbnb and the Blackstone Group “We got a coalition together to accelerate a response to this problem because the effects of climate change are accelerating people are going to realize how bad it is,” said Lalonde In the past month Deep Sky has formally partnered with Exterra Carbon solutions which is pioneering engineered mineralization to permanently store CO2 whose direct ocean capture process uses electrodialysis technology to capture CO2 directly from seawater as it passes through a plant Captura has been operating a one-tonne-per-year demonstration system at Newport Beach Exterra will store Deep Sky’s captured carbon using abandoned mine tailings in locations such as Thetford Mines Lalonde said there is already permitting in place allowing use of the asbestos tailings at Thetford Mines Deep Sky would capture atmospheric CO2 molecules from the open air using large fans that push the air over adsorbent solid particles or liquid sorbents The materials are then heated or electrically charged to release the captured CO2 so that it can be stored The firm intends to build geological storage sites in ultramafic (igneous) rock and saline aquifers deep below the surface of the earth Quebec has been selected because of its inexpensive renewable hydroelectricity Lalonde said there is so much support from the federal government for the initiative that he figures the government will cover a significant portion of the $500-million pilot project price tag Lalonde admits the forced-air reactors to be employed in the air capture process do not currently exist “We have to learn how to make these reactors at a speed that is similar to cellphones,” said Lalonde “We don’t know how to move a million cubic metres of air Lalonde believes Deep Sky can “throw the buildings together pretty quickly.” the firm is “obviously selecting ones that have a history of working fast and reliably.” The application of layers of software will lead to construction efficiencies “Our pilot facilities are rolling out at record speed validating the tech so the largest supply of carbon credits can be brought to market,” said Lalonde The federal government launched Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System in 2022 providing a domestic template for the credit trading system and Environment and Climate Change Canada has also indicated that the next round of protocols for development will include direct air carbon capture and sequestration Deep Sky calls itself the world’s first gigatonne-scale carbon capture company Lalonde said the carbon capture sector will eventually be five or 10 times larger than the oil and gas industry “This will be the largest economic undertaking humanity will have to face.” Follow the author on Twitter @DonWall_DCN MONTREAL — An iconic shopping centre in Montreal’s east end is slated to undergo.. 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A new name will be determined next year (Jean-François Dumas-Radio-Canada) The Quebec town of Asbestos said it’s had enough Officials say the negative association with the mineral and its now bad reputation as a health hazard A small chunk of the chrysotile asbestos found at the Jeffrey mine showing the fibrous nature of the mineral now long deemed to present a health hazard (Paul Chiasson-CP) In a telephone interview with a CBC reporter the mayor says industries and businesses won’t set up in the area because they don’t want their names associated with the town and the mineral The town announced this week that it will be seeking to change their name the largest asbestos mine in the world (|Jacques Boissonot-CP) The name is not an issue locally because “amiante” is the French word for the mineral The town of Asbestos in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec about 150km east of Montreal Another huge mine was located about 70km further east in Thetford Mines The silicate mineral asbestos has been used for thousands of years in the making of cloths and in recent history as fireproof insulation The mine and town in their heyday shown in 1954 (Paul Chiasson-CP) In the industrial age it became popular and a huge mining industry sprang up in the eastern townships of Quebec in the 1870’s with the Jeffrey mine becoming the largest asbestos mine in the world and a booming local economy in the 1960’s With the product being the main economic driver the town itself had long been named Asbestos The Jeffrey Mine shown in 2011 just after closing (Jacques Boissonot-CP) Although health concerns associated with breathing asbestos dust fibres had been raised as far back as the turn of the last century it was only close to the turn of this century that serious concerns were raised and bans on its use started to appear the mine buildings began being demolished in the start of a cleanup of the site The negativity around asbestos became such that the two local mines were halted in 2011 and shut down for good in 2012 but the negative association with the mineral now affects the town’s chance to diversify (Paul Chiasson-CP) The Quebec town hopes that a name change will attract business and jobs to replace those lost when the mines closed Residents will be consulted about their suggestions for a new name with a decision in 2020 All rights reserved @ Radio Canada International 2018 Sign In Subscribe Now The ocean has been a big part of Yvon Lehoux’s life He spent 30 years in the Royal Canadian Navy he couldn’t shake his love for the seven seas But after retiring to Cloverdale several years ago He had several different hobbies over the years he walked into a hobby shop and saw a shipbuilding kit The connection to the sea and his former career was there It wasn’t your average kit though; it was a massive replica of the famous HMS Victory—the flagship of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar “It took me about 1,500 hours to build this guy,” recalled Lehoux as he looked at the Victory in a display case All of the ropes have to be placed one-by-one It was a lot of fun building it and once I completed it and a lengthy break after the first 750 hours of work He went on the Internet to search for another big ship to build Lehoux was gobsmacked to come across the name of an obscure Second World War Canadian frigate “I found a picture of a ship called the Thetford Mines,” he said I was in total shock that there was an actual ship called the Thetford Mines.” Lehoux was in shock because he was born and raised in Thetford Mines and fancies himself a bit of a naval history buff but he’d never heard of the HMCS Thetford Mines before The ship was a river-class frigate that saw action for the Royal Canadian Navy in WWII from November 1944 until the end of the war So Lehoux called all of his aunts and uncles and all his siblings that still live in Thetford Mines but not one of them had heard of the river-class frigate He wouldn’t find a kit for the ship on the Internet But he wasn’t just going to make a simple replica he wanted to build it exactly like it was built he contacted the Naval Museum of Halifax and requested the ship’s blueprints although you do not get details on guns and armaments for ships still in service Then he set to work cutting all the little pieces he needed to build the wooden replica—each intricate detail brought to life from the blueprints and reproduced to scale—from the hull and decks His only goal was to gift the 1:70 scale HMCS Thetford Mines (K459) to the city of Thetford Mines “I wanted to raise awareness about the ship that was named for my hometown,” he said SEE ALSO: Cloverdale veteran talks about his time in the navy Lehoux contacted the current mayor of the Thetford Mines to gift the ship to the city The mayor then offered to display it in the foyer at city hall for two years after which it will go on permanent display at the local museum it will educate not only the current generation of people about the ship Lehoux plans to drive the Thetford Mines out to Quebec this summer I impressed the hell out of myself when I completed it,” Lehoux said with a laugh After finishing the Thetford Mines, Lehoux went to work on a model of the HMCS Skeena (DDH 207) the first ship he served on in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1975 He got the plans from the museum again and built the Skeena in about 650 hours it takes me back to my time in the navy,” he said the most interesting part is that you take a blueprint and you bring it to life,” he said “There is exhilaration in that and a sense of accomplishment I’ve discovered some talents I never knew I had.” Lehoux said he’s open to building any ships and will take any orders “Some people appreciate the artistic quality of models like these and some appreciate the sentimental value as loved ones may have served in the navy on different ships and the models become family heirlooms,” Lehoux explained Lehoux said if anyone wants to commission a ship he can be contacted through the Cloverdale Legion editor@cloverdalereporter.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter Dialogue and debate are integral to a free society and we welcome and encourage you to share your views on the issues of the day. 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To learn about our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines News  Jan 15 Masters student gathers tales of Asbestos Hill from families Tailing ponds at the site of the former Asbestos Hill mine This early 1970s photo shows Asbestos Hill mine site in operation during Nunavik’s summer months (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MUSÉE MINÉROLOGIQUE ET MINIER DE THETFORD MINES) Across a sprawling stretch of tundra south of Nunavik’s Hudson Strait sit the gravel-like remains of the region’s first-ever mine site For a project that shut down more than 30 years ago the mine’s mountainous tailings ponds have left a noticeable impact on the land and on the Inuit who live in the region most of them from the nearby communities of Kangiqsujuaq and Salluit Yet what the mine has left behind has also become an integral part of the landscape and life in Nunavik although an increasing amount of research focuses on the social impacts of mining on Arctic communities graduate student Jeanette Carney noted that little had been documented on the impacts of Nunavik’s first mine — second in the Canadian Arctic And what she’s discovered so far — she has yet to write her thesis — is a legacy with many sore points but which has led to better conditions for Inuit in today’s mining industry That’s where Asbestos Hill has made a real social impact through her research: the mine inspired the types of regulations and agreements that are now in place to help Inuit benefit from the mining industry When Carney spent the summer of 2015 in Kangiqsujuaq and Salluit she met a number of former Asbestos Hill workers were freshly graduated from residential schools in the region and looking for work most of the workers at Asbestos Hill were recruited by family or friends who were already working at the mine Salluit’s Kakkiniq Naluiyuk left residential school early to work at Asbestos Hill “That was my first job that I had,” he told Carney in a series of recordings made last summer they told me I had to get up early in the morning,” he said Inuit employees were labourers when they started and eventually worked their way into more skilled positions as tradespeople and heavy equipment operators Much like current-day mining operations in Nunavut and Nunavik Carney documented one story about an Inuk employee sent to British Columbia for training as a mechanic but she said all the other Inuit she interviewed learned their skills on-site by watching more skilled employees at work mostly Quebecers from the Thetford Mines area “That was helpful when they went back to their communities [where they could] work in those fields,” Carney said It’s not clear how many Inuit were employed at Asbestos Hill over the mine’s lifetime Carney was never able to track down those employment records she believes the mine’s workforce peaked at about 480 employees in the 1970s who worked at both Asbestos Hill and later at the Raglan mine Employees typically worked three months on and one month off — a major shift from the more common two week rotation seen at northern mines today Inuit employees chose to stay on at the mine for six months at a time “It helped us make a lot of money,” Keatainak said adding he passed a lot of his earnings on to his mother and family “We have large families so [it meant that we] could buy a couple of skidoos.” Many former staffers also recalled the entertainment available to them at the mine site theatre and dances they wouldn’t have access to in their own communities “We were able to have a beer and dance,” Jimmy Angutigirk of Salluit told Carney While those events might have given workers a chance to let loose after long days of work the bar at Asbestos Hill was a major source of alcohol to Inuit in the nearby communities who didn’t even work at Asbestos Hill gambling and some prostitution — they even sent prostitutes to the mine,” Aloupa Kulula told Carney Kulula used to work at Raglan mine; his father was employed at Abestos Hill that’s not allowed,” Kulula said Yaaka Yaaka of Kangiqsujuaq called drug dealing the asbestos mine’s “second biggest field of profits.” “And that became pretty bad towards the end,” he told Carney “It became pretty clear the mining operation was mired in corruption.” Carney heard unconfirmed stories through her interviews that the Montreal-based Italian mafia had connections with the mine site and affiliates used to deal drugs to staff there But worse for many Nunavimmiut were the health and environmental concerns they had about the mine site That’s because little was known at the time about the dangers of inhaling asbestos fibres Yaaka recalled workers using shovels to pick up processed asbestos they were covered in asbestos dust all day Carney said some families of former workers fear their deaths may have been related to asbestos exposure A decade later Asbestos Hill’s infrastructure still dotted the tundra The site was finally remediated in the mid-1990s through an agreement struck by the mine’s former owners and Falconbridge Ltd. At the same time, Raglan’s owner has negotiated and signed the first impacts and benefits agreement with Nunavik Inuit for the nickel mine Carney is now in the process of writing her thesis Use this form to request a PDF of Nunatsiaq News to be sent to you every week on Friday Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text Philip's Anglican Churchyard Cemetery This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Election campaigns represent a fascinating nexus between policy and personality When the 2006 federal election campaign came to an end and it was time to reflect on what had happened I found myself reflecting on a number of incidents and conversa- tions I had had over the years the morning after what became enshrined in Quebec political mythology as the Night of the Long Knives René Lévesque’s staff and the Quebec government’s intergovernmental affairs staff were gathered in the building known as the ”œBunker.” The word came through that there was a constitutional deal ”” and Quebec was part of it One of the founding members of the Parti Québécois who witnessed the scene looked on in amazement aston- ished at the evidence of a profound desire for reconciliation with the rest of Canada at the very heart of the quest for sovereignty the despair and anger was all the greater for hopes having been dashed after Brian Mulroney announced he was running in Manicouagan I spent a few days in the huge riding that stretched from Schefferville to Baie-Comeau In a hardware store on the outskirts of Sept-IÌ‚les I stopped and talked to the owner about how he felt about Mulroney being a can- didate in the riding He began by praising the sitting Liberal MP he had succeeded in get- ting federal funds to modernize the airport and expand the port ”œI don’t understand why John Turner didn’t put him in his cabinet.” I had to understand how important it would be for the riding if it were represented by a prime minister It would be like having an industry; it would put them on the map ”œI haven’t made a final decision yet ”œI haven’t seen the polls from the West yet.” I was driving through the Eastern Townships and coming through Ste-Catherine-de- Hatley ”” formerly Katevale a pretty little village on a height of land with a gorgeous view of Mount Orford a few kilometres to the northwest There was a Parti Québécois meet- ing at a small hall in the village There were two Magog small-business owners there ”” one in the hardware business the other in construction ”” who chatted about their hopes for sovereignty They had both had unpleasant experiences trav- elling in Ontario ”” insults and sneers across the counter ”” and compared it with the hospitality they had encoun- tered in the United States they would be treated with respect in the rest of Canada power and pride that I tend to see federal elec- tions play out in the ridings in French- speaking Quebec When Paul Martin’s government fell on November 28 Liberals had few illusions that they were going to make any gains from the 21 seats they had been reduced to in 2004 from 36 in 2000 They knew the effect of weeks of televised testimony of the Gomery Commission packets and brief-cases full of cash being variously left on restaurant tables or delivered to party organizers there was some hope that the Liberals would be able to hold what they had in Quebec ”” or as was Pierre Pettigrew who won by 468 votes ”” but Marc Garneau might win back Vaudreuil-Soulanges and David Price might win back the seat he lost in Mégantic-Compton as Jean Lapierre said at the beginning of the campaign but to persuade feder- alists ”” many of whom had stayed home in disgust in 2004 ”” that it would be very dangerous to give the Bloc the mandate that Gilles Duceppe was looking for when Paul Martin saw PQ leader André Boisclair campaigning with Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe in the first week of the campaign he embraced the opportunity to call it a referendum campaign during the first weeks after the government fell despite the fact that Stephen Harper was running a good campaign and Paul Martin was not Stephen Harper went to Quebec City and made a speech that may have been as important as the speech that Brian Mulroney gave in Sept-IÌ‚les in August 1984 when he promised that he would make it possible for the Que- bec National Assembly to sign the Constitution with ”œhonour and enthu- siasm,” a speech that set the agenda for Meech Lake Harper began by being relentlessly local: saying that one of the first things his government would do would be to enlarge the Quebec City airport (there is a deeply held belief in Quebec City that if the air- port is larger it works the other way around) and he vowed to get the Pont de Québec painted and to have a generous contribu- tion made to Quebec City’s 400th anniversary celebra- tions in 2008 ”œWe must never forget that Canada was founded in Quebec City by fran- cophones,” he said ”œThat is why I say that Quebec is the heart of Canada and that the French language is an undeni- able element of the identity of all Canadians even if some of us don’t speak it as well as we should.” Harper then went on to make more substantial ”” and more difficult ”” commitments: to settle the fiscal imbalance and to welcome Quebec to the table at international institutions like UNESCO in areas of its jurisdiction It was a masterful performance ”” and set the bar high for his new government the battle line between federalists and sovereignists was shifting federalist strength was concentrated in a line that could be drawn along the Ottawa River to Montreal west of St over the decade that Jean Chrétien was in power the anger over the death of the Meech Lake Accord subsided and French-speaking Quebecers developed a grudging respect for Chrétien as the aging warrior adopted positions that coincided with the con- sensus in Quebec: supporting same-sex marriage the decriminalization of marijuana and opposing Canadian participation in the Iraq War The sponsorship scandal blew away those gains the seats off the Island of Montreal that had been won back in 2000 some of them with Tory defections ”” Mégantic Duceppe carried on with a task he had started several years earlier defining his party as representing all Quebecers not just the descendants of the settlers of New France So while Harper was trying to woo Quebec City Duceppe was trying to seduce Jean Talon Boulevard in Montreal He spent most of the first week in January in Montreal’s cultural communities Lebanese activists and community leaders from a wide range of cultural communities what Duceppe called ”œle Québec moderne.” And at Bloc gatherings you could now hear the aspirate swish of Arabic and the musi- cal intonation of Haitian Creole in the crowds because you are Quebecers,” he told a group of Algerians Everyone who lives in Quebec is a Quebecer It is the message that he gave again and again ”” across Montreal telling them that there is a new confi- dence and openness toward the Bloc Québécois in these non-French ”œThat’s very encouraging,” he said ”œAnd it is very encouraging for all of Quebec It provided a new insight into how Duceppe perceived the key to the future success of the Bloc By breaking into the multicultural communities in Montreal the Bloc could not only suc- ceed in defeating Liberal MPs it could reassure francophone Quebecers who are nervous that the Bloc is ethnocen- tric and inward-looking would be a new kind of identi- fication with Quebec rather than with Canada Haitian- born feminist activist Vivian Barbot defeated Pettigrew in Papineau and Lebanon-born Maria Mourani defeated Eleni Bakopanos in Ahuntsic as Le Devoir pointed out after the election the Bloc vote had not actually increased in Montreal’s cultur- al communities the federalist vote had split with the rise of the Conservatives of two strategic errors on the part of both Duceppe and Martin Duceppe never explicitly stated that his real goal was to get more than 50 percent of the vote ”” something that no sovereignist leader has ever achieved say- ing coyly that he wanted to do better and that 50 percent was not far from the 48.9 percent of the vote the Bloc got in 2004 Voters who were not committed to sovereignty began to wonder whether they wanted to give a boost to the campaign for Quebec independence And some figured that electing a Conservative MP might be more effective punishment than voting Bloc by embracing the idea that this was a referen- dum election Martin did not mobilize the reluctant Liberal base as he had intended ”” but he did succeed in doing what Lapierre had given up on attempting: pulling back disil- lusioned federalists from the Bloc they started saying they would vote Conservative EKOS Research produced the first poll which suggested that the Conservatives were poised to make a breakthrough in Quebec compared to 21.9 percent for the Liberals and 43.8 percent for the Bloc the Conservatives 8.8 percent and the New Democratic Party 4.6 percent But Conservative campaign co- chairman ”” now Senator ”” Michael Fortier was extremely prudent ”œIf you were for one second to believe this Stephen Harper is not doing so badly with Quebecers,” he told me over cof- fee I don’t know ”” but it’s not true that one out of two Quebec voters want a Bloc MP in Ottawa.” I headed off in a rented car to see if I could find any of those potential Conservative voters in supermarkets or Tim Hortons It seemed probable that Josée Verner would win in Louis- Saint-Laurent in the suburbs of Quebec City; every shopper I talked to said he or she was voting Conservative the Beauce marches to its own drummer and has never voted for a sovereignist candi- date; Maxime Bernier the son of a long-time Tory and independent MP and conversa- tions in the hotel lobby and a drug- store confirmed this What was more surprising was a conversation at a Tim Hortons on the outskirts of Thetford Mines Claude Marois and Jacques LeBlond were retired asbestos workers and both remembered what Marcel Masse had done for the area when he was a minister in the Mulroney cabinet: in particular the aid program for older workers that enabled them to take early retirement and said he was voting Bloc ”” for his friend even if he doesn’t have much of a voice in Ottawa,” he said Quebec doesn’t have conservative ideas but more lib- eral ones,” LeBlond told me we’re going to give the Liberals a lesson.” Even Marois sounded tempted by the idea There won’t be scan- dals next time.” Mégantic-L’Érable is 95 percent francophone Progressive Conservative until 1993 and then Bloc ”” with an interruption in 2000 Beauce and seven other constituencies ”” all but Lawrence Cannon in Pontiac winning in over- whelmingly French-speaking con- stituencies claiming that Quebec’s lan- guage law would be in danger and arguing that the Conservatives would serve Western interests and not those of Quebec This culminated in a full-page ad in the Quebec City newspapers saying ”œWe won’t let Calgary decide for Quebec” ”” with a stylized cowboy hat by the word ”œCalgary.” Harper responded by saying that he could do what the Bloc never could: bring Quebecers to the cabinet table the vote was a calculated investment in the potential benefit of having a member of Parliament on the government side where all but one of the ridings elected a Conservative there was a complex blend of factors: a desire to be close to power a populist anti- establishment reflex stimulated by decades of shock-jock radio The desire for reconciliation with the rest of Canada power- ful factor in small-town French-speaking Quebec his Quebec agenda and his extended hand all resonated with voters Expanding the Quebec airport and painting the pont de Québec is easy Settling the fis- cal imbalance and welcoming Quebec to UNESCO is hard ”” hard to achieve and hard to do in a way that does not offend his Western base even more than seducing David Emerson did You are welcome to republish this Policy Options article online or in print periodicals, under a Creative Commons/No Derivatives licence. Originally published on Policy Options March 1 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License Go to the Subscriptions Centre to manage your: Full Episodes: RSS | iTunes Highlights: RSS | iTunes Video: RSS | iTunes CBC Radio-Canada This article was published more than 9 years ago A "No Trespassing" sign is shown at an abandoned asbestos mine in Thetford Mines 2015 photo.Lia Levesque/The Canadian Press The numbers of cases and deaths from mesothelioma a deadly cancer caused primarily by workplace asbestos exposure have continued to rise and show no signs of abating recently updated figures from Statistics Canada show mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that develops in the lining of the lungs as a result of inhaling asbestos dust and fibres mesothelioma can take 20 to 40 years to develop and begin causing symptoms shortness of breath and severe weight loss About 60 per cent of those affected die within a year of diagnosis The five-year relative survival rate is 7 per cent There have been thousands of cases and deaths related to occupational asbestos exposure in Canada the world's largest producer and exporter of chrysotile asbestos during the last century the most recent year for which statistics are available deaths from the asbestos-related malignancy jumped 60 per cent – to 467 from 292 "What they show is shocking because they show that in the past 20 years the number of cases have doubled and the numbers just keep going up," said Kathleen Ruff human rights advocate and anti-asbestos campaigner "And that only represents part of the picture It's well recognized by the scientists and health experts who study asbestos-related diseases that there are at least twice as many cases of lung cancers caused by exposure to asbestos "So you're seeing only part of the harm and suffering and deaths," she said from her home in Smithers Ruff and a lengthy list of international signatories called on his government to ban the import of asbestos-containing products and urged that Canada support the listing of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous substance under the UN's Rotterdam Convention Health Minister Jane Philpott was not available for an interview Wednesday to say whether the government plans to ban asbestos a department spokesperson said by e-mail: "Health Canada advises that breathing in asbestos fibres is dangerous and can cause cancer and other diseases .. Health Canada will continue to review the science around the exposure of Canadians to hazardous materials." Some of the highest case counts of mesothelioma have occurred in Quebec where the largest and longest-operating asbestos mines in Canada were located closed in 2011 after the then-Parti Quebecois government refused to guarantee a loan that would have kept it operating Quebec recorded 180 new cases of mesothelioma with incremental jumps in the numbers each year who headed an occupational health clinic in Sarnia said the region was a hotbed of mesothelioma and other asbestos-linked cancers among workers and their families where asbestos was widely used as insulation for pipelines as well as in other industrial applications in the so-called "Chemical Valley" of southwestern Ontario "We documented what I think is the largest cohort of asbestos disease in workers in Canadian history," said Brophy "We had over 1,000 workers with asbestos-related cancer or respiratory disease." there were also another 1,200 people with pleural plaques a fibrotic condition of the lungs that is a marker of asbestos exposure But it wasn't just workers who breathed in asbestos while on the job: women who washed their husbands' contaminated clothes and children who hugged their fathers on their arrival home from work were also at risk – and many got sick "You end up with this mass engulfing your lungs and causing them to collapse," Brophy said there were 1,487 men diagnosed with mesothelioma in Ontario but the figure is considered an underestimation because the disease was often mistaken as lung cancer by doctors unfamiliar with its clinical hallmarks less than half registered for compensation with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board often because victims and their families were so devastated by the diagnosis "There was barely a blue-collar family in Sarnia who didn't lose a family member or someone they knew – an uncle a best friend – who had developed this disease," Brophy said mesothelioma and other asbestos-induced cancers and diseases have already cost the country's health-care system hundreds of millions of dollars and the financial toll will continue to mount as more cases arise "So there's still consequences from the decades of asbestos use being felt in Canadian society and most of it is falling on the families and on the public health-care system when the law requires that their employers be held responsible." director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre at Cancer Care Ontario cement pipes and cement board for buildings insulating substance known as "white magic" is present in older residential homes and such public structures as schools and hospitals floating asbestos dust and fibres can be set free unless strict containment measures required by law are adhered to as cases of contractors being fined and even jailed for failing to protect workers have shown "There's a lot of chances for continuing exposure," said Demers "So it's hard to predict when we're going to see the peak of this." Based on computer modelling done by his centre he estimates that asbestos may be responsible for "at least 2,000 new cancers each year in Canada "We're dealing with mistakes made in the past and we have to live with that," said Demers noting that cancers caused by exposure in the workplace are preventable It's one that we're going to have to live with for a while But we hope it leads to action in terms of trying to prevent more cases occurring in the future." Report an editorial error Report a technical issue then scroll to read more.\n \n \n \n Listen to my story\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n Part 1\n\n \n\n The invisible epidemic\n\n \n \n \n \n \n Photo John Nolan in 2012 Nolan was exposed to asbestos while working as manager of a convention centre His career also included stints as a tour guide all over the world working with the likes of Judi Dench and Ian McKellen (Courtesy of the Nolan family)\n \n \n\n For John Nolan the first warning signs came mid-November of last year while he was leading a tour in the Peruvian Andes who lives in Fort Erie in southwestern Ontario was guiding a group through the mountains near the storied Incan city of Cuzco He had criss-crossed the planet for years as a tour guide and knew what higher altitudes typically felt like But something terrifying happened while he was hauling his luggage up some steep stone steps to his cabin “I’ve never been out of breath in such a panicky Nolan says in a raspy voice between laboured breaths It was as if you were hitting a stone wall It was mesothelioma — an incurable cancer caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure Nolan was initially given a few months to live Asbestos is the top on-the-job killer in Canada But a Globe and Mail investigation has found that this stark fact has been obscured by the country’s longstanding economic interest in the onetime “miracle mineral.” Even though Canada’s own asbestos industry has dwindled from pre-eminence to insignificance — the country’s last two mines closed in 2011 — the federal government has dragged its feet as other nations have acknowledged asbestos’s deadly impact and moved to protect their populations from it holds to the position that asbestos can be safe despite an international consensus among doctors and researchers to the contrary And despite evidence that even low levels of exposure can be harmful asbestos products continue to enter the country from Australia and Japan to Sweden and the United Kingdom Canada has never banned imports or exports of asbestos “Many people are under the misconception that we’ve banned asbestos we still use asbestos for some things,” says Paul Demers one of the country’s leading experts on asbestos-related disease Ongoing uses (such as brake pads) are not even the biggest threat “The problem is that asbestos doesn’t simply go away,” says Dr who is a University of Toronto professor in public health and director at the Occupational Cancer Research Centre at Cancer Care Ontario but there’s a lot of it in our environment in older buildings and structures,” he says Canada faces an invisible epidemic: mesothelioma Nolan’s asbestos exposure occurred in the late 1980s when he was manager of Windsor’s Cleary Auditorium and Convention Centre.\n His office was located within 25 feet of renovations where workers in protective suits removed asbestos from the ceiling and walls The room was covered in plastic sheeting — but the ventilation pumped air right from the dusty renovation into his windowless office (He also recalls asbestos was present in the basement’s pipes.) but “for those of us who were still working there “Nobody came by to say ‘this is a really bad thing here “We were relying on a mechanical system that ventilates and so as they’re taking the asbestos out how the hell do they know where it’s going as they’re removing it Well it obviously was coming into the office next door.” dumb on our part too because there’s somebody 20 feet away with this heavy-duty ventilator and mask and complete covering and there I am standing with my street clothes on.” By striking both blue-collar workers and white-collar workers mesothelioma has racked up a record as the most common cause of workplace deaths in Canada for every year between 2007 and 2012 with more than 1,200 successful claims for fatality benefits made in that time data from the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada show but is not typically fatal) is the fourth-most common claim Other asbestos-related diseases include lung cancer and pleural plaque (a calcification on the lungs) Asbestos exposure also raises the risk of several other of cancers The climbing toll of Canada’s top occupational killer is reflected in workers’ compensation statistics asbestosis and asbestos-related conditions according to the province’s Workers Compensation Board The number of accepted claims for mesothelioma in Canada rose 216.4 per cent between 1997 and 2010 seven in 10 accepted occupational cancer death claims involve exposure to asbestos The Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board has pegged the average cost of a mesothelioma claim at $532,844 (with much of that in survivor benefits along with health-care costs and loss of earnings) Mesothelioma deaths are even higher when statistics for non-workplace-related cases are included more than 4,000 people died of mesothelioma The number of new cases has almost doubled The figures likely understate the number of people affected Workers’ compensation data is based only on the number of successful claims so that anyone who is not covered by the system of no-fault workplace coverage who doesn’t file or is unsuccessful in their claim doesn’t show up in the stats only about half of mesothelioma cases are filed with the workers’ compensation boards And mesothelioma itself is frequently misdiagnosed as lung cancer tends to be under-diagnosed and under-reported along with mesothelioma’s long latency period and continuing exposures to asbestos that is already in place across the country add up to a dire prognosis: Canada’s invisible epidemic hasn’t even peaked yet Many Canadians are unknowingly exposed to asbestos every day It is still found in the country’s schools No research has been done on how much of the total Canadian population is exposed A tally of workplace exposures taken by Carex Canada a research project funded by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (which in turn is funded by Ottawa) from builders to auto mechanics and engineers But the study did not include low exposures The federal government allows its workers to be exposed to one fibre of asbestos per cubic centimetre of air — a level at least 10 times higher than what is permitted in the U.S or Europe (most provinces have now introduced lower levels) Canada has seen a decade-long building and home renovation boom; as walls Home renos account for an increasing share of the workload of lawyer Rohan Atherton Many exposures today stem from lack of knowledge on the workers’ and homeowners’ part co-owner of Toronto-based asbestos-removal firm Greenstream Environmental Inc. estimates that “less than 10 per cent” of the thousands of home renos under way in Toronto have had testing for asbestos and then followed proper procedures for safe removal He has watched contractors haul out bags of asbestos to the dump and then reuse the bags He has been called into homes after other firms have botched a job stirring up asbestos in an attic and spreading it throughout the premises “There tends to be a lot of cowboys out there who aren’t following the rules,” Mr “A lot of times they leave the place in a worse state than if they’d never showed up.” Canada’s imports of asbestos products add to the exposure risk the country imported $4.9-million in raw asbestos and products containing asbestos The agency’s trade data from 2004 to 2014 show that the products include replacement brake pads A refrain in Ottawa’s position over the years has been that asbestos is safe if not airborne When pipes and tiles containing asbestos are cut to size Materials also naturally break down over time And it’s hard to police all workplaces to ensure young workers in particular are wearing protective gear and observing proper procedures for sawing pipes and cutting tiles informal jobs that make people less likely to complain Many elementary and high schools and universities were built prior to 1990 Many of those buildings are now showing their age — ceilings are crumbling These heavy-use buildings also take knocks all the time: Every time a volleyball thumps a gym ceiling technicians install Internet cables or renovators make space for full-day kindergarten any asbestos that is in the structure might be released “Asbestos has been a huge issue,” says Laura Lozanski a former nurse who is occupational health and safety officer for the Canadian Association of University Teachers Not only do universities have huge buildings containing lots of asbestos things degenerate and it all becomes friable [crushable in one’s hand].” “People complain a lot about seeing white dust on their desks,” she says the University of Windsor temporarily closed its biology building after a fire exposed asbestos in a ceiling above a lab And in April a Toronto high school was closed after tests of its air ducts found asbestos in six out of 18 samples Flooding is an increasing problem; when the water recedes after incidents like last year’s inundation of Calgary and with them the potential to release asbestos The 2008 explosion at Sunrise Propane company resulted in the release of asbestos throughout a Toronto neighbourhood The word asbestos comes from Ancient Greek Asbestos boasts some striking qualities — it is strong rot-proof and practically indestructible,” as one 1930s ad puts it Humans have long loved the miracle mineral Deceased Egyptian pharaohs were wrapped in asbestos cloth to preserve their bodies more than 4,500 years ago Clay pots in Finland of roughly the same vintage contain asbestos which was used to strengthen and flameproof them Romans wove the fibres into napkins (and cleaned them by throwing them into the fire) suits of armour were insulated with asbestos cloth Asbestos use ramped up in the Industrial Revolution the mineral was used to insulate steam pipes Canada’s history with asbestos began when a farmer found it in 1876 in Thetford Township The discovery of this “white gold” made the town of Thetford Mines the so-called asbestos capital of the world Exploitation of the Quebec resource was followed on a smaller scale in British Columbia Canada was the world’s top producer of asbestos mining and milling two-thirds of the world’s supply the mineral had a starring role in the launch of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution: The Asbestos strike of 1949 helped make a star of a young lawyer named Pierre Trudeau Asbestos is so versatile and durable that it found its way into thousands of products and places between the 1940s and 1980s from ceilings and roof tiles in homes to insulation in schools and pipes in hospitals It was regularly used in housing on military bases and First Nation reserves Much of it remains in public buildings and homes today Some uses verged on the bizarre: Asbestos was used in crayons modelling clay and talcum powder for babies Consumers bought boxes of “pure white” asbestos snow to decorate their homes at Christmas One 1950s advertisement for an asbestos product seems like a joke but is not: The Micronite filters in a pack of Kents boasted “the greatest health protection in cigarette history.” companies such as then New York-based Johns Manville which owned the Jeffrey asbestos mine in Quebec manufactured products for the building industry from 1948 to 1980 the company was the world’s largest producer of asbestos-fibre products of the deadly toll the mineral takes on human health The first documented case of asbestos-related death appeared in 1906 A 1918 document noted that asbestos workers were generally rejected as customers by the Canadian and U.S health concerns prompted some countries to limit use of asbestos or ban it outright Mesothelioma most commonly attacks the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma) victims are generally given between six months and a year to live Other types of the disease include peritoneal mesothelioma which forms in the tissue lining the inside of the abdomen and — in very rare cases — pericardial mesothelioma which starts in the lining around the heart who worked in the post-Second World War asbestos boom times and came home caked with dust Now different sorts of workers are getting sick They include people who work with asbestos products: carpenters The majority of mesothelioma victims are men Another wave is family members — “bystanders,” in medical parlance — who are dying from the equivalent of second-hand smoke: Victims include spouses who washed their husbands’ dusty clothes and children who snuggled with dads after work Other victims work in environments where asbestos has been disturbed “You see more educated people getting it — white-collar workers though still the majority are blue-collar,” says Brenda O’Sullivan clinical research manager at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre who has tracked mesothelioma cases for the past decade “Now it’s the next generation coming up — children of the workers who are now lawyers and doctors themselves people who are doing a home reno and living in the house at the same time.” She reads off a list of mesothelioma cases she’s seen: teachers a sales associate who sold pens to asbestos companies these levels are going to go up again,” she says Heidi von Palleske knows all about the first wave with asbestosis and lung and prostate cancer The former worker at the Johns Manville Scarborough plant lost 50 pounds in four months and “wasted away.” who shook out and washed her husband’s clothes for years died of mesothelioma in 2011 in debilitating pain von Palleske’s sister and brother have since been diagnosed with pleural plaque von Palleske remembers running into her dad’s arms after work and being given chunks of asbestos to play with as a girl Kids would walk through the plant at company Christmas parties and workers would have pretend snowball fights with it “I still have panic attacks of not being able to breathe after watching my parents basically suffocate to death.” A 1984 Royal Commission said the asbestos-induced disaster at that plant “ranks with the worst that have been recorded in the international epidemiological literature on asbestos.” In the past three decades at least 187 asbestos-related claims by Johns Manville workers have been allowed in Canada according to Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board in 1982 asbestos-related lawsuits forced it into the biggest bankruptcy in U.S It is still in the insulation and roofing business Since 2001 it has been owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.) figures her family has spent $100,000 in flights a condo rental and cab fares over the course of her husband Lyle Cassidy’s Toronto hospital stay Cassidy was most heavily exposed in 1969 while working at a generating station He insulated steam pipes with asbestos without any protection He went on to start his own construction company where asbestos was present in products such as flooring and drywall was in perfect health: He roped calves in a rodeo last summer doctors drained two litres of fluid from his lung he was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma it became clear that doctors had little experience with the disease or treatment options The family eventually accessed a new treatment in Toronto “It is so crazy that a word that we had never heard of five months ago is impacting our family like this,” says Lyle’s daughter Carrie but most people don’t know just how bad it is.” Cassidy has been with her husband at the hospital in Toronto since the February surgery that led to complications “There is zero awareness in our country of what asbestos can do Even the medical profession and the construction industry don’t know what [mesothelioma] is.” “It’s a lot of stress on everybody,” says Dorn Cassidy he’s dismayed that no one knew about the dangers lurking in asbestos from sons and daughters of mesothelioma victims who fear they too may have been exposed to grandchildren who feel dread every time they hear their mom or dad cough Sisters Stacy Cattran and Leah Nielsen’s father was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2008 A former electrician and labourer in the Sarnia area he spoke of putting asbestos blankets over air ducts to block unwanted breezes Two months and five days after the diagnosis “We were told it’s the most painful cancer there is — it’s the lining of your lungs so every breath you take is excruciating,” says Ms that her own children scarcely remember their grandfather “We have not yet reached the peak of the mesothelioma epidemic and we expect cases will continue for the next 20 years,” says Mark Parent executive director of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers for Sarnia and Windsor Nordic countries that banned asbestos use as far back as the 1980s have still not seen mesothelioma cases subside “we’re certainly going to be behind them,” says Dr Canada is at odds with other developed countries almost all of which have both banned asbestos and launched national campaigns to educate their citizens on its dangers Canada’s long-standing position is that “safe and controlled use” of the mineral poses little risk to human health Health Canada’s website maintains that chrysotile (the form of asbestos mined in Quebec) is safer than other types of asbestos and that asbestos poses risks only when its fibres become airborne and “significant quantities” are inhaled It plays down the causal relationship between asbestos and some forms of cancer The website does not inform Canadians that asbestos is the No reminded the American public in April that there is no known safe level of asbestos exposure.) “Chrysotile is different from the amphiboles both structurally and chemically It is generally accepted that chrysotile asbestos is less potent and does less damage to the lungs than the amphiboles.” “If asbestos fibres are enclosed or tightly bound in a product for example in asbestos siding or asbestos floor tiles Asbestos poses health risks only when fibres are present in the air that people breathe.” “Asbestos poses health risks only when fibres are present in the air that people breathe How exposure to asbestos can affect you depends on: “Approximately one third of all homes built in Australia contain asbestos products The widespread use of asbestos has left a deadly legacy.” “Both friable and non-friable asbestos pose a significant health risk to all workers and others if the materials are not properly maintained or removed carefully.” and the inhalation of asbestos fibres is associated with increased incidences of a number of diseases including pleural disease Even limited or short-term exposure to asbestos fibres can be dangerous but exposure does not make development of an asbestos related disease inevitable.” Canada was the only developed nation to oppose bringing asbestos under the control of the Rotterdam Convention that requires the exporters of hazardous substances to disclose the risks the Conservative government has been a stalwart friend of the industry “Only the Conservative party will defend this industry here and everywhere in Canada,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in Quebec on the campaign trail in 2011 While the Tories were fighting international efforts to restrict trade in asbestos the government was simultaneously spending millions to remove asbestos from the Parliament buildings and the prime minister’s residence predates the Harper era and was for many years seconded in Quebec City both the federal and Quebec governments provided millions of dollars in funding to an industry lobby group which was rebranded as the Chrysotile Institute in 2004 closed in 2011 amid rising costs and after one failed to get bank-loan guarantees it sought from the provincial government the federal government said it will stop blocking asbestos’ inclusion under the Rotterdam Convention (the next round of decision making is in 2015) The Chrysotile Institute quietly closed in 2012 the Canadian government’s position remains much as it was a decade ago — advising safe and controlled use of chrysotile asbestos — even though there is no longer much of an industry to defend and despite mounting evidence of the hazards of exposure to asbestos Newfoundland’s Baie Verte asbestos mine offers a case study The first worker health registry of its kind in Canada examined the health of 1,003 former workers at the mine One hundred and sixty nine of them have asbestos-related disease “one of the most dangerous industrial toxins known,” as the study calls it happened between the 1950s and the early 2000s affecting everyone from miners to managers the total of 169 understates the extent of cases while new cases “could very well be diagnosed for some years to come,” the study says The lead author of the study is not impressed by Ottawa’s claim that chrysotile can be safe “The high levels of disease incidence in our cohort make it clear that that claim is blatantly false,” says Stephen Bornstein director of the Newfoundland Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research at Memorial University “Chrysotile is probably not quite as toxic as the amphibole [varieties] but it is still very toxic.” The Newfoundland study along with a large body of scientific research belies Ottawa’s position “There is no scientific doubt that all forms of asbestos are dangerous as well as carcinogenic,” says Richard Lemen an Atlanta-based epidemiologist and retired Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S “I am surprised Canada has not completely banned import and export of all forms of asbestos.” but has more stringent regulations and curbed its use earlier than Canada.) The World Health Organization concurs with Dr Lemen and other scientists that all forms of asbestos are carcinogenic to humans noting that it can cause not only mesothelioma but also cancer of the lung The most efficient way to stop asbestos-related diseases “is to stop the use of all types of asbestos.” Even very low exposures raise the risk of cancer Among the organizations that have called on federal and provincial governments to ban the use and export of asbestos are the Canadian Medical Association the Canadian Public Health Association and the Public Health Physicians of Canada Canada needs “a comprehensive strategy to phase out the use and export of asbestos as well as improved monitoring of exposures and asbestos-related diseases,” says Dr director of cancer control policy at the Canadian Cancer Society The federal government would not make any spokesperson available for an interview about its current position on asbestos Health Canada said the information on its website “remains accurate,” and that the government has “consistently acted to protect Canadians from the health risks of asbestos.” In an interview about occupational health and safety on May 15 said that exposure to asbestos had not come up as a concern during her 10 months in the portfolio “You are the first person to raise it with me,” she said Asked whether Ottawa would flag government buildings containing asbestos “I’m open to any suggestions that make workers safer on the worksite.” The minister’s office declined several requests for a follow-up interview expressly about asbestos exposures Canada should ban the use and trade of [asbestos] products in all forms and ultimately work towards safe removal and disposal from the environment.” — Geoff Fary chairman of Australia's Asbestos Safety and Eradication Council Countries like Australia have taken a much more pro-active approach to asbestos Australia was once one of the world’s largest consumers of asbestos and also mined it The country banned asbestos exports and imports in 2003 “The only way that you can prevent people from contracting asbestos-related diseases is by not pussyfooting around,” says Geoff Fary chairman of the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Council and the possibility that a motor vehicle with asbestos pads could spray dust while “someone’s walking on a sidewalk.” (Canada imported $3.2-million worth of asbestos brake pads last year Australia’s government has proposed a strategic plan to manage the legacy of asbestos containment Apart from further publicizing the dangers involved it would take inventory of locations containing asbestos The country’s efforts are starting to pay off While mesothelioma cases have not yet peaked there has been a decline in other asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis and pleural plaque Australia’s experts in the field have long been puzzled by Canada Canada should ban the use and trade of [asbestos] products in all forms and ultimately work towards safe removal and disposal from the environment,” Mr Canada’s “safe-use” approach also baffles other international experts “There have been no long-term studies showing the efficacy or safety for so-called ‘safe use’ or for a ‘safe form’ of asbestos which are promotional terminology used by the asbestos industry,” says Dr “Even the smallest exposures to asbestos show an increased risk of fatal asbestos-induced disease.” About 125 million people around the world are currently exposed at the workplace More than 107,000 people die a year from asbestos-related diseases one in every three deaths from occupational cancer is caused by asbestos The WHO recorded 92,253 mesothelioma deaths between 1994 and 2008 (noting the scale is likely underestimated) and says it expects deaths to shift to the developing world where asbestos use is rising An unknown number of deaths abroad are attributable to Canadian exports Canada was the world’s fifth-largest producer of asbestos Canada’s position that asbestos can be used safely ignored the reality of its key markets Canada sent almost 70,000 tonnes of asbestos to India in 2010 Canada’s last export of raw asbestos was in November Operations at Canada’s idled mines could resume almost immediately if the economics of competing against countries like Kazakhstan improve If Canada were serious about protecting its people from asbestos exposure the first steps would include warning the public of the danger of asbestos and banning its use and export “We should totally eliminate its use,” says Dr president of the Toronto-based Institute for Work & Health along with many other health professionals Stacy Cattran and her sister now campaign for a ban on asbestos No products containing asbestos allowed into Canada Safer substitutes for asbestos exist and have been introduced in many countries without major economic disruption although some alternatives may be more expensive “when the government decided to proceed with the ban it was remarkable how quickly companies were able to source other products,” says Mr Some asbestos-free alternatives are made in Canada has made asbestos-free brake pads since its founding in 1995 competing with cheaper imports that do contain asbestos asbestos makes a great brake pad — as a friction material it works really well and there’s no noise,” says president John Burns “But by the very nature of a brake on a car whose firm employs 80 people and exports to 25 countries wants to see a complete asbestos ban in Canada “The competition will rise to meet it,” he says Canada could also consider Saskatchewan’s efforts It has started a mandatory registry of asbestos in public buildings as a result of this we prevent one person from becoming ill Minister of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety The country as a whole could also look to British Columbia where WorkSafeBC has launched an awareness campaign for construction workers on the dangers of asbestos particularly those with houses built before the mid-1980s should have testing done to detect the presence of asbestos the project’s budget should be revised to cover abatement Do-it-yourself renovators should be aware that paper masks are not sufficient protection against asbestos Asbestos fibres are so tiny — invisible to the naked eye — that special respirators are required Materials containing asbestos should be kept wet to prevent fibres from becoming airborne Canada could take a page from Finland and develop an occupational disease registry to better understand links between exposures The health-care system could better prepare doctors on how to detect diseases that stem from asbestos and be better informed of clinical trials and new methods of treatment And patients should be told where they can seek help especially since new treatments are available Smokers should be made aware that their risk for asbestos-related diseases is dramatically higher thanks to the synergistic relationship between tobacco smoke and other airborne carcinogens Princess Margaret Cancer Centre has a new treatment that can prolong peoples’ lives — but it works best if the cancer is caught early The treatment is aggressive — doctors blast the cancer site with high doses of radiation before removing a lung But it can extend peoples’ lives by several years John Nolan had the treatment this spring — his right lung was removed along with parts of his diaphragm and part of the lining of his heart on how you’re going to get the next breath There’s someone pushing a pillow on your face It can consume you with an effort to keep calm “I’m pretty lucky in the treatment I’ve had so I’m slowly recovering from the removal of my lung.. [It does] require you to learn how to breathe without one lung It’s possible but it’s not as easy — you have to learn to breathe all over again.” He’s hopeful the treatment will buy him some time He’s booked tickets for this fall to take the train to Vancouver with his wife of 34 years something his wife has always wanted to do “If you had to go through what I’ve gone through who wouldn’t wish what he’s gone through on anyone is horrified to learn that asbestos is still being imported and used in Canada wants to see all asbestos use in Canada stopped If the people who are responsible for importing or exporting this material were feeling like I have felt they certainly wouldn’t be doing what they are doing.” He gives himself injections to prevent blood clotting has no appetite and is plagued with nausea He has a painful bed sore that won’t heal and cannot walk further than the driveway Photography and video LOUIE PALU and PAWEL DWULIT development and production by CHRISTOPHER MANZA Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. Click here to subscribe If you would like to write a letter to the editor, please forward it to letters@globeandmail.com. Readers can also interact with The Globe on Facebook and Twitter Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff We aim to create a safe and valuable space for discussion and debate If you do not see your comment posted immediately it is being reviewed by the moderation team and may appear shortly We aim to have all comments reviewed in a timely manner Comments that violate our community guidelines will not be posted UPDATED: Read our community guidelines here We have closed comments on this story for legal reasons or for abuse. For more information on our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines and our Terms and Conditions Thursday’s junior time trial in Thetford Mines kicked off the junior and master phases of the 2015 Canadian Road Championships an event that saw strong performances from western Canadian riders in the women’s race took the title from 2014’s champion Pierre-Andrée Côté (Equipe du Quebec) of St-Henri de Levis Blazing the course with a lapsed time of 40:48 Gee won both the title and the coverted jersey with Evan Burtnik of Team Alberta just behind — only 19 seconds from taking first place a comfortably wide margin making Gee this year’s new Canadian Champion enjoyed a similarly commanding margin with her first place finish rounding the single-lap 14.2 km course in 23:27 seconds Ellsay’s lead put her 44 seconds ahead of Team Alberta’s Emilia Harvie and fellow Vancouver Islander Erin Attwell Today the master road race hits the pavement in Thetford Mines with the junior road race happening on Saturday Get the digital edition of Canadian Cycling Magazine This website uses cookies to enhance your experience. Read our Privacy Notice. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. The Canadian town Asbestos has voted to rename itself “Val-des-Sources”, the mayor announced Monday, in a hope to shed its association with the deadly mineral. Asbestos, a town 100 kilometres from Montreal with a population of 6,700, is historically entwined with the nearby Jeffrey asbestos mine, which was active until 2012 and was the backbone of the local economy. But the town decided to change its name mostly for economic reasons, after years of losing the PR war ever since asbestos – fibrous crystal mineral often used as building insulation – was declared cancer-causing by the WHO in the 1980s.  View of asbestos mine elevator at Thetford Mines, King Mine historic site. Photo: Bibikow Walter/Hemis.fr via AFP “The word ‘asbestos’ unfortunately does not have a good connotation, particularly in English-speaking circles. It is an obstacle to the city’s willingness to develop outside economic relations,” the town said in November 2019 following the decision to rename itself. The new name was unveiled at a special municipal council meeting that was streamed live on the town Facebook page. “Not only will our town change its name, but we did it in a unique way,” said mayor Hugues Grimard. Last week, Asbestrians aged 14 and up were asked to vote by ranking names in order of preference among six choices: Val-des-Sources, Azur-des-Cantons, Jeffrey-sur-le-Lac, Larochelle, Phenix and Trois-Lacs. The possible names were proposed by the residents and had to meet several criteria, such as the name had to be in French and had to illustrate “the history of the city, but without the direct asbestos connotation.” Asbestrians will officially become Valsourcians in December, once their choice has been ratified by the appropriate authorities, the mayor said. To view comments, please register for free or log in to your account. 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Photos by Laurence Butet-RochNight was still upon us when Gilles Gauthier \u201CIt\u2019ll be another cloudy day!\u201D Syracuse basketball recruit Quincy Guerrier in Thetford Mines .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Donna Ditota | dditota@syracuse.comThetford Mines Quebec — The first thing a visitor to the Thetford Mines practice facility notices about Quincy Guerrier is the maturity of his body he wore a tank top and shorts over tights as he attempted jump shots worked on his handle and showed the versatility of a player renowned for his ability to produce points the future Syracuse basketball forward has built a body that already looks rugged enough to play with pros When he scrimmaged on his recruiting visit with Syracuse players last fall Guerrier appeared bigger and brawnier than most of his future teammates When he worked out last year with the Canadian men’s national team nobody would have guessed he was still in high school “The transformation I think happened this past summer But his father is a pretty big dude and his mom He just blew up and everybody that saw him on every visit mentioned it he grew up primarily in the Montreal neighborhood of Riviere des Prairies Guerrier’s familiarity with Syracuse originated with his admiration for Carmelo Anthony a friend of former SU forward Kris Joseph and his brother Maurice first heard of him from a Canadian friend a few years ago and began watching him play and believed Guerrier was seriously interested in the Orange As Guerrier’s stock in Canada rose — he would become the No 1 recruit in his 2019 class — Autry stayed close He made at least three trips to Thetford Mines a laborious wintertime journey that involves traveling first to Montreal then making a 3-hour trek to reach the rural town The journey involves hilly two-lane roads lined with tall evergreens over sometimes snowy once one of the world’s largest asbestos producers “I met Coach Red two and a half years ago,” Guerrier said “He came to a Thetford practice and offered me on the spot.” “The biggest thing I saw about him that I initially liked was his size A lot of times kids try to do a lot of different things is a Syracuse basketball recruit from Montreal Guerrier was drawn to the isolated Thetford destination by Appiah and the basketball program he built there Guerrier was beginning to show skills that needed the kind of nurturing a typical Quebec high school basketball program could not provide Appiah said a coach at Guerrier’s former high school recommended that Guerrier transfer to Thetford a program that plays top-level teams in Canada and the United States Steve Guerrier said the family’s decision to send Quincy to Thetford was easy was dedicated to the sport and Thetford provided a perfect spot to concentrate on his craft Steve Guerrier said his oldest son played soccer and street hockey as a boy but basketball soon became his primary sport He spent hours shooting at a kiddie hoop in his room and would carry a basketball with him when he brushed his teeth The family was thrilled when Appiah and Thetford took an interest and explained how the school could prepare Quincy for the next step in his basketball maturation “The goal of being in a place like this,” Appiah said “is you get to focus on what you came here for and kind of get distracted from what your main goal is We kind of keep them in shelter here and they focus on school.” Guerrier was quiet and “timid,” Appiah said His dad said he preferred to “analyze,” rather than talk But as he gained confidence on the basketball court as he grew comfortable with who he was and what he was accomplishing more willing to take a vocal leadership role on his team the ability to prove in front of big crowds that he can play Thetford Academy coach Ibrahim Appiah (left) and Syracuse basketball recruit Quincy Guerrier pose in the gym on a December morning When a reporter from Syracuse visited last month Guerrier playfully suggested that he was a better shooter than Oshae Brissett The two are friends and fellow Canadians and Brissett speaks highly of Guerrier and his game (“He’s going to be a shock to a lot of people,” Brissett said of comparing himself to an established college player like Brissett But Guerrier’s dominance on the high school level his AAU play and his inclusion on Canada’s U17 national team boosted his confidence and uncovered a more buoyant personality He gets on his teammates when he believes they can play better Guerrier averaged 24.7 points and 6.2 rebounds “He’ll have some great games and I’ll come and tell him he didn’t play that well like ‘What are you talking about?’ Then about an hour later I should have done this better.' And for a kid of his caliber when everybody is telling him that he’s good to be able to listen to those criticisms shows what kind of person he is.” kept Guerrier hidden from many high school talent evaluators Few recruiters were willing to travel to Thetford Mines Guerrier said he appreciated Autry’s interest His relative anonymity worked further in his favor “Being outside the ESPN Top 100 was a blessing for him,” Appiah said “It allowed him to work in the dark where everybody is talking about everybody else I think sometimes when you get ranked early you kind of get a big head where you think you’ve done it all Often times he was upset — ‘I’m better than that guy’ — but at the same time he was able to use that then keep working and some day it will show.” If he was in the States his recruitment would have been crazier and then you’d have everything else that would have come with that.” Autry likes Guerrier’s physicality on offense Guerrier believes his shooting stroke is the best part of his offensive game but Appiah says simply “he’s a scorer.” Appiah worries that Guerrier sometimes “falls in love with that jump shot.” He wants him to use his size and his strength to work defenders in the post or shed them with his dribble He hopes Guerrier can get to Syracuse this semester to practice each day against college competition to understand where his game needs to grow and to hear from coaches other than himself Guerrier awaits word from the NCAA on whether his application to attend SU on a basketball scholarship will be approved in time to enroll this semester he will stay in Thetford until Syracuse’s summer sessions Quincy Guerrier awaits word from NCAA about early entry to Syracuse basketball Guerrier, a 6-foot-7 wing from Montreal, is hoping to enroll at Syracuse and start classes and practice in January. Steve Guerrier asked his son “What do you want to become when you grow up?” When Quincy said he had his sights set on an NBA career his dad warned him to “be serious,” to pick a profession better suited to a young man born and raised in Quebec The Canadian province has not produced the kind of pros and Guerrier grew up in the same Montreal neighborhood and are hoping to change that perception but I’m just going step by step,” Guerrier said “Now I’m going to Syracuse and I’m going to focus just on Syracuse I’m not going to focus to get in the league I think that doing that is not good because it can go to your head and you cannot play well I want to win a championship at Syracuse.” Guerrier said he chose the Orange because of his fascination with Carmelo Anthony because of the relationships he forged with Autry and the rest of the SU coaching staff and because of Syracuse’s proximity to Montreal His flight home to Montreal from Syracuse was cancelled on his recruiting visit and his mom Appiah and he simply rented a car and drove back When he made his announcement to attend SU last Halloween Everybody is already ready to come and cheer for him Everybody is coming by bus and by car to see him.” Follow Syracuse basketball on Twitter and Facebook Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025) © 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. 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