Government to prohibit asbestos in new construction & renovations including imported materials

By 2018, the federal government hopes to ban asbestos in Canada and change rules and regulations about the deadly material, which contaminates tens of thousands homes and buildings across the country and kills thousands every year.

Asbestos, a known carcinogen, has been condemned by the World Health Organization and is banned in some 50 countries around the world.

Key promises in Thursday’s asbestos ban announcement With this announcement, Canada is committing to its own comprehensive ban — which is supposed to be fulfilled by 2018 — of a product that many Canadians believe was outlawed years ago.

“Today I am pleased to announce our government is taking the first step to ban asbestos,” Science Minister Kirsty Duncan said at a news conference at the Ottawa Hospital’s General campus on Thursday morning.

“We are taking action that is long overdue, and we are doing it in the best possible way,” said Health Minister Jane Philpott, referring to the action being taken as a “cross-government approach.”

Included in the government’s asbestos announcement is the creation of new regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), new workplace health and safety rules intended to limit drastically the risk of people coming into contact with removal of asbestos on the job.