MONTREAL – The Harper government is blaming the incoming Parti Quebecois government for killing Quebec’s asbestos industry.
   
Industry Minister Christian Paradis cast blame Friday as he announced that Ottawa will no longer oppose efforts to include asbestos in the U-N’s Rotterdam treaty on hazardous materials.
   
Paradis said the decision was inevitable given the P-Q’s vow to cancel a 58-million-dollar provincial loan aimed at saving Canada’s last asbestos mine.
   
He accused incoming Premier Pauline Marois of a decision that will affect prosperity in the so-called asbestos belt in central Quebec.
   
The P-Q says it has noted Paradis’ announcement but would not react to it.
   
The World Health Organization estimates that asbestos-related disease kills 107-thousand people a year.