Tories push steel plan as deadline passes for Stelco layoffs

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With Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s five-day deadline now elapsed, Hamilton’s steelworkers are now waiting for a little follow-through from the federal government.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning outside of Hamilton’s Stelco plant, area Conservative MPs Ned Kuruc and Dan Muys said the time has come for the Mark Carney government to make good on its threats to initiate legal action against the parent company Cleveland-Cliffs — which plans to put 500 steelworkers out of work.

“Hamilton is not a place where we get bullied,” said Kuruc, the MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.

“It’s a place where we fight.”

Plant owner threatening to take Ottawa to court

Blaming economic strain caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war against Canada, Cleveland-Cliffs officials said they had no choice but to lay off 500 workers from Stelco plants in Hamilton and Nanticoke.

When Cleveland-Cliffs acquired Stelco in 2024 from U.S. Steel, Joly claims agreements were made under the Investment Canada Act to prevent such deep job cuts.

She demanded the company find a way to save those 500 jobs, or face legal action.

On Saturday, a statement posted to social media by Joly renewed calls for Stelco to meet its obligations.

“The government of Canada continues to expect Stelco to meet its legally binding commitments to its employees,” the statement read, adding that “all options” are on the table.

“These commitments were agreed upon as undertakings under the Investment Canada Act and do not cease to apply because of changing business strategy or market conditions.”

Speaking to CBC News over the weekend, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said he’s prepared to defend his actions in court, claiming he never would have accepted the agreement’s terms if it prohibited him from laying off workers. 

“There is no provision in the contract that I have to keep employment at a certain level every single day of the five years,” Goncalves said in the interview, adding he’d be open to selling his ownership in Stelco if the right offer came along. 

Tories propose their own plan

Flamborough-Glanbrook-Brant North MP Dan Muys said idling the plants would leave Canadian businesses unable to secure much-needed Canadian-made steel.

“Are we simply going to wait until these effects trickle downstream further into the supply chain, and we’re reading or hearing about more job losses?” he said on Wednesday.

In addition to calling on the government to take legal action against Stelco, the Conservatives put forth a plan of their own they say will build demand for Canadian-made steel.

The Conservative Steel Plan calls for stiffening of rules to prevent Chinese firms from dumping cheap steel in Canada — even when routed through a third country, eliminating the contentious industrial carbon tax, pre-approving natural gas projects, and returning to the negotiating table with the United States to hammer out a trade deal that restores tariff-free access for Canadian producers.

As for suggestions by the NDP that Stelco be taken over by the federal government, Muys warned that nationalization would do little to alleviate structural economic headaches or regulatory red tape.

“Nationalizing Stelco doesn’t alleviate the commercial reality facing the company,” he said, urging the government to return to the bargaining table to protect Canadian jobs.

The MPs outlined a Conservative response focused on enforcing existing corporate commitments, combating Chinese steel dumping, repealing the industrial carbon tax, and pre-approving major LNG projects to ensure Canadian fabricators get the work.

Muys also dismissed NDP suggestions to nationalize the steelmaker, warning state ownership won’t solve structural economic headaches or regulatory red tape.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

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