OTTAWA
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she will not meet the CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. until the U.S. steelmaker provides a concrete plan and timeline to restore jobs at its Canadian subsidiary Stelco Inc.
Joly told reporters Tuesday that the government wants a plan to bring back laid off workers before she will sit down with the head of Cleveland-Cliffs.
"First and foremost, what I want is a plan to bring back the jobs, and I want a timeline," she said. "And of course, I’m always willing to sit down, but that’s the first condition."
The minister was responding to a letter from the company requesting a meeting to discuss a path toward resuming full employment for 175 Hamilton workers who have been temporarily laid off.
Joly says the Ohio-based company has not respected its binding commitments, including a five-year commitment to maintain at least the same number of unionized workers and most non-unionized employees as when the deal was struck in 2024.
She says Ottawa could still take the company to court to enforce its commitments, seek financial penalties or require the sale of Stelco.
Cleveland-Cliffs has rejected Ottawa’s allegations, maintaining that it has met all its commitments.
"The facts are clear," CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in a statement. "We made serious commitments to Canada when we acquired Stelco, and we have honoured them."
He added that Stelco is in full compliance with all undertakings and in several important areas has even gone beyond what it committed to do.
In a letter to Joly, the company says it’s in full compliance with each of its 34 undertakings, including its promises regarding employment levels.
Cliffs said it expects Stelco’s “average annual employment” to be at least 1,879 for its unionized employees, which is 113 above the required level of 1,766.
By reporting the average employment level for the 12-month period, and not the latest numbers, Cliffs appears to have leeway to lay off workers in Canada and still meet the minimum threshold allowed over the course of a year.
On Sept. 28, Stelco announced that it was laying off up to 500 workers in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ont. Not all of the layoffs have taken effect yet.
Goncalves said in an interview this month that the company plans to report its annual job figures for Stelco to Ottawa in November, and said the company “will be in compliance” with its obligations.
Joly reaffirmed on Tuesday that the government believes Cliffs is in violation of its legally-binding promises.
Apart from allegedly not meeting its undertakings around job commitments, Cliffs did not live up to promises made around promoting free trade in steel between Canada and the United States, she said.
"They had a clear commitment to make sure that there would be advocating in favour of tariff-free access of Canadian steel to the U.S. and they’ve done completely the contrary."
In her letter to Stelco last week, Joly pointed to multiple examples of Goncalves advocating against Canada after the U.S. imposed tariffs on steel imports last year, including several instances of him giving kudos to U.S. President Donald Trump for introducing them.
Joly has said multiple times over the past few weeks that Cliffs could face a lawsuit, and be forced to divest Stelco. On Thursday, she said she knew of potential buyers interested in buying Stelco.
e2gold.ca reported last week that Joly had given Cleveland-Cliffs 15 days to reverse layoffs or face court action.
The company says Stelco will update its compliance report following the Oct. 31 close of the current reporting period.
This story was written by the e2gold.ca newsroom from reporting by BNN Bloomberg and The Globe and Mail. Quotes are checked word for word against that reporting.