Twenty doctors have handed in their resignations at the Centre hospitalier régional de Sept-Îles.

MONTREAL Quebec 's Liberal government must stop uranium exploration near Sept Îles and declare a moratorium on uranium mining activities across the province to avoid the mass resignation of 20 doctors in the North Shore town, a Sept Îles doctor said Friday.
"I want to work in a place where the government listens to citizens and where medical opinions are respected," said Bruno Imbeault, a pulmonologist at the Centre Hospitalier et des Services Sociaux de Sept Îles.
Imbeault is one of 20 doctors at the Sept Îles hospital who signed an open letter to Health Minister Yves Bolduc pledging to resign unless uranium exploration activities in the area are stopped. The hospital employs 60 doctors in total.
The doctors oppose a proposed uranium mine at Kachiwiss Lake , about 13 kilometres from Sept Îles, because they believe it will harm the environment and the health of area residents.
Imbeault said the impact on health care in the region if one-third of the doctors leave would be "catastrophic", but the doctors believe they must protect themselves and their families, and could not do so without publicly warning residents.
"Fearing for the health of the population and our own personal health as well as that of our families (particularly our children), we, the signatories, have decided to leave the region, and many of us, the province..." said the letter, sent to Bolduc on Thursday.
The doctors are concerned about radon and other so-called "decay products" of uranium, which can contaminate air and water around a mine and cause lung cancer in humans. The letter adds that even residents of Montreal , Quebec City and Sherbrooke should be concerned about exposure to radiation because of widespread uranium mining across Quebec
Imbeault said he and his colleagues began discussing mass resignation last month when they learned the Quebec government had authorized access routes to the mine site.
On Wednesday, the Liberal government tabled a new law on mining that did not call for a moratorium on uranium mining, despite protests and demands for a moratorium from the city council of Sept Iles , the Innus of Uashat-Maliotenam, dozens of environment and social groups, the Parti Québécois, Québec Solidaire and several members of the Bloc Québécois. British Columbia and Nova Scotia have declared moratoriums on uranium mining activities .
In the National Assembly, yesterday, Serge Simard, junior natural resources minister responsible for mining noted that no uranium mining is being done yet.
"If the population of Sept-Îles doesn't want this project, the government of Quebec will respect their wishes," Simard said.
But Lorraine Richard, the Parti Québécois MNA for Duplessis riding, which includes Sept-Îles, appealed to Premier Jean Charest to "for once act in the interests of Quebec and for the Sept-Îles region," saying no one has been listening to opposition to uranium mining in the region.
"The doctors are leaving the Sept-Îes region," Richard said. "We don't want uranium in Sept-Îles."
Health Minister Yves Bolduc said there is "nothing to worry about."
"There is no risk," he said. "We are only talking about exploration."
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