HAMILTON — Stelco handed more layoff notices to unionized workers at its Hamilton plant this week, and on Wednesday the minister who could take its American owner to court said a forced sale of Canadian assets is among the penalties she is weighing.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters that “everything is on the table,” including forced divestment or financial penalties, in a fight born of the same tariff war that led Ottawa to impose Canada’s retaliatory tariffs last month.
“We expect Stelco to follow the undertakings they’ve committed to the government of Canada,” Joly said. A business decision, or even a change in market conditions, she argued, “cannot be used to not follow the commitment.”
The company’s owner, Cleveland-Cliffs of Ohio, announced last month that it would idle part of the Hamilton operation and cut up to 500 jobs, blaming low steel prices and Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel and autos. Ottawa says that breaks job pledges made under the Investment Canada Act when Cleveland-Cliffs bought Stelco in 2024. Stelco president Paul Simon answered in a seven-page letter obtained by The Canadian Press, arguing the undertakings do not bar layoffs or fix a headcount for every day of the five years. He wrote that Canadian exports of cold-rolled and coated steel to the United States have fallen 58 percent from pre-trade-war levels and that imports hold 45 percent of the market. Those are Stelco’s figures, and the reports reviewed show no independent check of them.
Cleveland-Cliffs chief executive Lourenco Goncalves calls the layoffs temporary. The Canadian Press reported he said on Oct. 8 that workers would be recalled once a trade deal is reached, and that he considers U.S. Section 232 tariffs “the most successful policy implemented on trade in the United States ever.” Ottawa notes he publicly backs the tariffs the company blames for the cuts.
Ron Wells, president of United Steelworkers Local 1005, told CTV News the dispute is “a manufactured crisis by Cleveland-Cliffs to put pressure on our government to go get a trade deal.” Union officials welcome enforcement but worry a court process could take months, or years. “Our members, they want to get back to work now,” Wells said.
The notices land on a weakening job market. Statistics Canada said employment declined by 68,000 in September and the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent. Ontario’s industrial towns have felt that strain since spring, as TEH reported on Canada’s jobs crisis.
What is missing is the text itself. Joly says the commitments survive market shifts and Simon says they set no daily headcount, but none of the reports reviewed publishes the undertakings’ wording, and no court filing has been reported, only threats. Cleveland-Cliffs did not immediately respond to CTV News. Stelco says it is preparing to restart its Hamilton lines with “minimal additional costs and time,” but it has given no date.
