Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said she is willing to negotiate if Stelco wants to come back to the table after the company announced layoffs of up to 500 workers.
At an unrelated announcement Thursday in Peterborough, Ont., Joly said she is still reviewing a letter from the company that was sent in response to her own letter, dated Oct. 5, in which she gave Stelco five days to respond to an ultimatum.
Joly said the federal government would be using the “full force of the law” if jobs are not preserved.
A copy of the letter from Stelco, dated Oct. 9, was obtained by Global News. The letter, written by Stelco’s president, Paul Simon, detailed the consequences that U.S. tariffs have had on the company.
The Ontario-based steel manufacturer announced last month that pressure from U.S. tariffs forced it to concentrate steel production at its Lake Erie Works plant in Haldimand, and halt production at its plant in Hamilton. Some employees would be offered transfers, but many would be out of work.
Get daily National news
“Our early September meetings with several senior government officials, including representatives from your office, led Stelco to believe that the government understood the market realities confronting Stelco’s Hamilton Works finishing lines,” the letter said.
It also said that the government’s representation that Stelco’s planned layoffs cause it to breach its undertakings is “false.”
“The CEO has been clear, he has been advocating for the imposition of U.S. tariffs on steel and steel makers here in Canada,” Joly said Thursday.
She said her offices are willing to continue conversations with Stelco, but reiterated her position from the day prior that financial penalties or a forced sale of assets could be imposed if the company continues to lay off workers.
- ‘Local Governance 101’ Okanagan community’s first-ever council trains ahead of inaugural meeting
- Family of soldier badly burned at CFB Wainwright speaks about his injuries
- As B.C. scraps time change, experts have a warning about the risks
- B.C. soldier burned in CFB Wainwright fire remains in Edmonton ICU
Approximately 90 workers received notices last week, and the first layoffs took effect Sunday, the president of United Steelworkers local 1005 previously told Global News.
The remainder of the layoffs are expected to roll out over the course of three weeks.
“We’ve hired the best lawyers in Canada to help us to deal with that, and we will fight to keep the jobs in Hamilton,” Joly said.
She said the government is willing to take the matter to the courts, but did not say when that process would begin.
– With files from Global News’ Ariel Rabinovitch
Liberal logic. Campaign on fear mongering and working with DT. Get elected. Run away from DT and trade offers. County fails economically. Thousands of job losses. Blame DT and Americans. Sue company’s in Canada for laying off employees. Elbows up.
Maybe the government shouldn’t have brought in Chinese steel………
If a company has no contracts in which to earn money, how can it avoid layoffs? And how can anyone sue the company if those layoffs are justified?
As always, insufferable Ben has something insufferable wrong to say.
Whatcha got Ben, oh, shifting topics from Joly’s blatent failure.
What a shocker.
Mental note for dumb Liberals sychophants:
Threatening to fine or threatening the forced sale of a business is, not just terrible negotiation skill, it also sends a terrible message to anyone wanting to invest.
By negotiations she means to bribe the company with taxpayer dollars because, that is their modus operendi… If you can’t win a majority, bribe, bribe and extort your way to a majority.
Needless to say, she is now calling what were previously open threats, negotiation…and that’s why the trade deal with the US collapsed. Liberals don’t know how to negotiate.
I suspect that Joly sent a strongly worded letter to Stelco ….
that’s it !!
Ben, governments of all levels mandate local content in contracts. Cities require canadian content when buying transit vehicles for example.
You continue to blame the private sector for so many aspects of this LNG industry, even when Carney and Trudeau kaybashed the sale of LNG to Germany and Japan.
I will repeat for those who don’t know. The LNG project expansion is run by a private entity which is going to use a specialized steel not available in Canada. This private entity is purchasing it from China. Nothing to do with the Carney government. Forcing a private company to purchase Canadian steel would cast a pall over all private investment. The Carney government has already put economic disincentives in place to encourage private companies to avoid Chinese steel.
Anonymous the village idiot….why is Ben so much smarter than me ?
This is Carneys fault. He is allowing Chinese steel to be dumped into Canada and he still has not got a trade deal with the USA as he promised would be done by end of July 2025.
Commenter below, you’re dog shat, same with your family, you’re nobody, just dirt under working person’s boot
@ Joey – Cleveland-Cliffs signed a contract when they purchased Stelco. That’s how business works. Joly is a lawyer. You are a nobody on the web.
Stelco is a business not a charity. The government failed to negotiate a deal with the USA. That’s on Carney not Stelco. Carney will be the last Canadian president If things keep going the way the liberals ar running the country. I’ve heard of corporate raiders but Carney is a nation raider and sell out.
@Ben. Were you dropped as a baby?. No brain.
Canadians dont need to make steel. Liberal Party prefers to buy it from their Chinese masters.
@ F*CK THE LIBERALS!! – Nobody is wondering why Stelco is laying off employees. It’s Trump’s steel tariffs. Cleveland-Cliffs signed a deal with employment guarantees when the bought Stelco.
I am so tired of empty performative outrage like this. Spare me racist.
Another useless blonde twit. What the hell is it with the Liberals? F*ck industry over and do nothing to help it. Buy chink steel and wonder why Canadian plants are laying off. F*ck I hate these Liberal sh*tbags.
@ Ben – If Cleveland-Cliffs spoke out in favour of Trump tariffs and also contributed to his campaign then they definitely could have foreseen the market changes that resulted in the layoffs. This could be what Joly was alluding to when she warned them about trying to wriggle out of their obligations with a ‘force majeure’ claim. Cleveland-Cliffs may in fact be the force majeure in this instance. It’s up to the lawyers now.
Ben, the Canadian Liberal government, which you live and breath for, decided to use Chinese steel for that LNG expansion in the west coast that you claimed was held up in 2023 because of a lack of private partners.
Turns out it was lacking involvement by only the Feds. And when they did get involved they outsourced some of the project to China.
A reasonable person would say that nobody could have foreseen the tariffs when Stelco agreed to keep people employed. On the other hand, I just have a great deal of difficulty letting Stelco completely off the hook.
I believe her as much as I believed that they were negotiating with Trump on the Gordie Howe Bridge, or on the trade deal.
How do you know when a federal Liberal is lying? Their lips are moving.