The federal government is moving to ban all products containing asbestos by 2018.
The comprehensive ban is designed to include construction materials and brake pads that currently use the cancer-causing agent.
Even minute amounts of asbestos fibres can cause lung cancer or deadly mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer.
Thousands of Canadians continue to suffer from the long-term impacts of decades of heavy asbestos use.
Canada closed its last asbestos mines a decade ago, but has continued to obstruct international efforts to list it as a hazardous substance.
Science Minister Kirsty Duncan says that stance will change in the next Rotterdam Convention.