Carney vows legal action as Cleveland-Cliffs defends Stelco Hamilton layoffs

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa will pursue Cleveland-Cliffs “to the fullest extent of the law” after the U.S. owner of Stelco moved to idle cold-rolled production in Hamilton and cut up to 500 jobs — while chief executive Lourenco Goncalves told CBC News on Wednesday he has every legal right to do so.

Stelco has tied the cuts to President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent Section 232 steel tariffs and Canada’s retaliatory duties. Goncalves said free access to the U.S. market under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement was an “underlying condition” of Cleveland-Cliffs’ roughly $3.4-billion cash-and-stock purchase of Stelco that closed in November 2024, including commitments to keep significant Canadian employment and Hamilton operations. “I would not have acquired the Stelco if I knew that Canada and the United States would become what they became — enemies in trade,” he said.

Carney has singled Goncalves out for applauding Trump’s tariffs and said federal money is “on the table” to cushion trade-war pain. Goncalves rejected that framing, arguing Stelco is not short of cash and that no subsidy replaces a firm Canada-U.S. trade deal. He blamed a crowded domestic market — Stelco, ArcelorMittal Dofasco and import volumes — for concentrating Hamilton on hot-rolled products, saying there were “no orders” to turn away. CBC cited unnamed industry sources who disputed that claim; Goncalves said he had not received notice of a federal lawsuit.

The dispute turns acquisition employment promises into a live test of how far Ottawa can enforce “national interest” steel capacity while Washington’s tariffs reshape North American supply chains. For Hamilton workers and suppliers, the immediate question is whether idle lines and legal threats resolve into transfers to Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke — or a deeper cut to Ontario’s flat-rolled footprint.

Sources: CBC News, “Stelco’s U.S. owner touts right to idle operations at Hamilton steel plant as PM vows legal action” (https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/stelco-layoffs-legal-carney-9.7363928).