Cleveland-Cliffs boss ready to battle Ottawa over Stelco cuts

See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source

OTTAWA — He’ll take the government to court.

In a televised interview aired Sunday on CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said he’s prepared to meet the federal government in a courtroom to ensure his plan to put as many as 500 steelworkers in Hamilton and Nanticoke out of work.

“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 during the interview, stressing that he would not have accepted the deal with the federal government under such terms.

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

A letter to Industry Minister Mélanie Joly from Stelco officials denied that the layoffs — which Stelco blames on economic strain caused by U.S. tariffs — violate the agreement, which they claim contains no language requiring employment levels to be kept above certain thresholds.

Upset Stelco workers ‘being played,’ CEO maintains

Earlier this month, Joly demanded the company find a way to save those 500 jobs or face legal action.

As well, Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week that Canada will use all of its powers to ensure Cleveland-Cliffs lives up to the spirit of that agreement. 

If the right offer was made, Goncalves said, he’d consider selling Stelco — adding that workers speaking out against the decision to cut their jobs are “being played.”

“I believe that having the Prime Minister of Canada, a person that I have never met, saying that I betrayed my employees — this is not true,” he said.

“This was Prime Minister Carney repeating what Minister Joly said without thinking … pay attention to what (Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic) LeBlanc is doing, don’t pay attention to the rhetoric of people that are just playing politics.”

CEO supports steel tariffs against Canada

In the same interview, Goncalves told Barton he agrees with moves by the Donald Trump White House to impose 50% levies against Canadian steel.

“I am in favour of tariffs against all the countries in the entire world that dump steel into the United States,” he said.

“Because President Trump implemented in the United States the Section 232 steel tariffs based on national security, we finally have the American steel industry back. We are now the third-largest producing in steel country in the world (sic,) when we were fourth for a long, long time.”

He added that he’s in favour of negotiating separate deals between the United States and Canada, saying he’s in favour of “Fortress North America,” a phrase widely used by Ontario Premier Doug Ford in his pleas with American leaders to not edge out Canadian industry.

“The situation between Canada and the United States is starting to be resolved,” he said.

“The first day I was owning Stelco, I stopped selling at low price into the United States … but I don’t control anything beyond Stelco.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

1. 

   Canada
2. 

   Celebrity
3. 

   Toronto Blue Jays
4. 

   Sunshine Girls
5. 

   Toronto & GTA