Stelco negotiations still on the table, Joly says amid layoffs

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.

“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.

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