The federal government has given the American owner of Stelco five business days to present a concrete plan for preserving jobs at the Hamilton steel facility or else face potential legal action. Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs announced last week that it intends to lay off approximately 500 workers while idling specific steel production lines at Stelco. According to federal officials, this move directly breaches binding commitments established when the company was purchased in 2024. In a letter sent Monday to Stelco president Paul Simon, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly stated that Ottawa is fully prepared to seek a court ruling to enforce the agreement under the Investment Canada Act. Joly emphasized that the government takes compliance with established undertakings very seriously and noted that the legislation outlines distinct remedies for breaches, which can include applications to superior courts for compliance orders, divestitures, or financial penalties. Cleveland-Cliffs completed its acquisition of Stelco through a $3.4-billion cash-and-stock transaction. At the time of the purchase, corporate announcements highlighted that national interests were kept at the forefront while recognizing the critical importance of the workforce. Joly’s letter points out that these commitments explicitly mandated maintaining at least the same level of unionized staff and the vast majority of non-unionized employees who were working when the deal was formally announced. Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves has defended the operational cutbacks, arguing they are necessary due to the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war and asserting that Stelco’s capacity to export steel into the United States formed an underlying condition of the original transaction. Prime Minister Mark Carney stated last week that Ottawa intends to utilize every available power against Cleveland-Cliffs, pursuing the Ohio corporation to the fullest extent permitted by the law.
Source: cbc.ca
