The town, along with the neighboring village of Thetford Mines, is the site of the last two asbestos mines in Canada. The Canadian asbestos industry exports thousands of tons to developing countries annually. The mines are a mainstay of the local economy and provide hundreds of jobs. Quebec Premier Jacques Charest was recently met with protests from labor unions and worker safety advocacy groups in India during a state visit where he met with businesses that import the mineral from his province.
Leading citizens in Asbestos say their mineral has been the victim of an alarmist press. Despite the mounting medical evidence that points to asbestos exposure as a cause of mesothelioma and other lung diseases, officials with the local and provincial governments maintain that asbestos is safe to handle when those around it employ the proper precautions. However, the growing public perception that asbestos is dangerous and the increasing legal restrictions on its use around the world pose poor prospects for the asbestos industry.
The Guardian newspaper reports that there is a move to diversify the town of Asbestos’s economy by expanding the tourism industry. The plans to change the town’s image include offering nature hikes and “extreme sports” in one of the abandoned asbestos mine craters. The crater, at more than a mile wide and a hundred feet deep, will hold nature trails, bike paths and four-wheel-vehicle off-road activities. The leader of the town’s tourist bureau was quoted as saying that the area around the mine resembles “a great big sand pit” and “a gigantic playground”.
Organizers hope to attract as many as thirty thousand tourists a year. The town sits about an hour’s drive north of the US border, so expectations are high for hundreds of American tourists, and thousands of their dollars, to make their way north.
