Month: July 2025
By Jazmine Aldrich
The ETRC’s Executive Director, Etienne Domingue, suggested that our monthly column focus on moving since it is indeed the season. Here in Quebec, many of us take part in the Great Canada Day Move and I was a reluctant participant, this July 1st. For anyone else who endured the alternating rain and stifling humidity to move house – my thoughts are with you!
The topic led ETRC Archivist, Julia Langlois to stumble across a compelling story from 70 years ago. While searching for imagery to accompany this column, Julia came across an album in the ETRC Graphic Material collection (P998) documenting the Thetford Mines relocation project of 1955. Intrigued, I searched the digitized issues of The Sherbrooke Daily Record that can be consulted online.
What I found was the following headline: “Asbestos Industry Expansion Shifts Part of Thetford”. The headline was followed by an even stronger assertion: “Biggest Move Seen In Province Makes Way For Mining Growth”. The article goes on to explain that 140 homes, an Anglican church, a Masonic Hall, and the head office of one of the mining companies were all to be moved to “give the asbestos industry more elbow room”.
The next logical question would be: where did all of the houses go? According to the aforementioned article written by Robert Joyce, a new townsite called Johnson’s Park was laid out “to receive the wandering houses.” The three mining companies in Thetford Mines – the Asbestos Corporation, Johnson’s Company, and Bell Asbestos Mines Limited – paid homeowners twice the municipal valuation plus 10% to purchase their land; in exchange, the homeowners were responsible for any expenses associated with relocating their houses.
The project was budgeted at $5.5 million in 1955 – roughly $640.9 million, today. The budget covered the building of by-passes and a new provincial highway to account for the interception of the main Quebec-Sherbrooke highway and the destruction of several miles of streets. The railroad also needed to be shifted, which meant buying up property for the right of way of the new railway line. Much of this purchasing was done in secrecy by third-parties to avoid the artificial inflation of prices.
As Dr. Jessica Van Horssen explained at the ETRC’s Robin Burns Lecture, a few months ago, we know in 2025 that the extraction of asbestos in the historic Eastern Townships left a lethal legacy. In 1955, however, Joyce claimed that “by old standards, Thetford and the other mining towns are clean, modern communities.” Joyce explained that dust from the mills was being cut and “today the air is clean.”
The author also assured readers that the asbestos industry had announced in 1954 that no new cases of asbestosis – “the lung-scarring disease” – had been reported in five years. I imagine that Dr. Van Horssen would take issue with the offending industry claiming that asbestosis had been eliminated but I encourage you to read her book, “A Town Called Asbestos” (2016) to learn more about her findings. If you have a question regarding the history of the Eastern Townships, please contact the ETRC Archives by email or by telephone.