The Montreal Gazette
December 4, 2009 1:58 PM

MONTREAL – Twenty doctors have handed in their resignations at the Centre hospitalier régional de Sept-Îles.
In an open letter addressed to Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc, the physicians say they have quit, as a group, to protest plans to build an uranium mine on the North Shore.
The protest comes on the heels of the introduction new government mining legislation, which does not impose a moratorium on uranium exploitation in Quebec.
The doctors say they fear for their own families’ health as well as for the health of the population in the region.
The letter’s signatories say they plan to leave the region and, in some cases, the province.
Lorraine Richard, the Parti Québécois MNA for Duplessis, says the doctors’ departure will be a disaster for health care in the Sept-Îles region.
The town of Sept-Îles, with a population of 26,000, is located on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, about 915 kilometres northeast of Montreal.
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