Canadian Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has threatened to sue Stelco Inc for shutting down its Hamilton finishing operations and laying off around 500 workers.
Stelco owner Cleveland Cliffs is calling Joly’s bluff, citing the government’s own Investment Canada Act guidelines.
OTTAWA — Stelco Inc. says Canadian exports of cold-rolled and coated steel to the United States have plunged 58 per cent compared with pre-trade-war levels, while continued foreign imports put pressure on domestic producers.
In a seven-page letter to Canada’s industry minister obtained by The Canadian Press, Stelco president Paul Simon says Canadian exports of those steel products to the United States fell by 226,000 tonnes in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the 2024 quarterly average.
At the same time, he says imports accounted for 45 per cent of market share for those products, despite Ottawa’s efforts to protect the industry by restricting steel imports.
Simon says a combination of declining exports to the United States, weaker domestic demand and continued foreign steel imports has shrunk the market for products made at Stelco’s Hamilton Works by more than one million tonnes annually — roughly twice the plant’s historical annual production of cold-rolled and coated steel.
[…] Stelco’s general counsel, says the company is proceeding with plans to idle its Hamilton finishing operations despite Joly’s warning of possible legal action. He says the layoffs do not violate its binding employment commitments as U.S. tariffs and continued foreign steel imports have dramatically changed market conditions. (read more)
🚨 ULTIMATIUM BACKFIRES 🚨
After threatening Stelco's U.S. owner with the full force of the law over 500 potential layoffs, Mélanie Joly just a rude awakening.
Cleveland-Cliffs is calling her bluff, citing the government's own Investment Canada Act guidelines. pic.twitter.com/nPPysmGiIT
— Northern Perspective (@NorthrnPrspectv) October 10, 2026
Stelco layoffs begin as Cliffs says it will fight Ottawa in courthttps://t.co/jEQcNIEExj pic.twitter.com/2EMTA40oKn
— Western Standard (@WesternStandard) October 13, 2026
Canada has entered the FO phase…
.
The Canadian Liberals actually Communists put Green Policies over Canadian Families. Our Democrats and their Liberals hate the people of their countries.
Somehow Carney’s whole elbows up BS isn’t going to put food on the tables of 500 Canadian families.
Is this the beginning of the great awakening for the people of Canada?
No
Atlas shrugged.
Move the steel mill to the US?
Like the spouse who abuses the other spouse, that spouse leaves.
The abuser sues.
Pure commie move.
Forced control never works on humans who have been given free will from God.
There is no record in recent history of a government demonizing and suing a company into profitability, but given the tone deaf antics of Canada’s authorities of late, they’ll likely have to be reminded of this the hard way.
Rhetoric is one thing, as is political posturing and picking fights with your runaway largest trading partner, while at the same time whoring your country to a predatory, export-sustained Chinese mercantile system. But reality on the ground, after the smoke clears, is jobs lost. And all the threats and hand wringing in the world will not change that.
The next step is up to the Canadian people.
J
Everything Leftist’s touch turns immediately to CRAP, Right Carney?
I suppose the next logical step is for Carney to Nationalize the means of production, so that he can create make-work jobs for Canadians. But, after 178 years, the Marxists still haven’t figured out how to make a planned economy work. Even the Red Chinese had to incorporate aspects of free trade into their economy, or that regime would have toppled years ago.
Perhaps Carney will import some economic advisors from China to help him out of this quagmire that he caused for himself (and the poor bastards who are his subjects). Meanwhile, if Carney is to be the new Messiah of the EU, then they need to quickly plan a rescue operation, so that Carney can be promoted even higher than his current level of incompetence, before his reputation becomes irreparable.
How can the Canadian govt insist a private company stay open when they are losing business and therefore money to stay open? Doesn’t sound like a free nation to me.
I bet Canada will broker a take over of that plant(s) and give them to the ChiComms.