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OTTAWA — Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is calling on the U.S.-based owner of Stelco Inc. to provide a concrete plan and timeline to restore jobs at its Canadian steel mills before she will agree to meet with CEO Lourenco Goncalves.
Cleveland-Cliffs said late Monday it’s in full compliance with the promises it made as part of an Investment Canada Act review that allowed its purchase of Stelco in 2024.
The company also said Stelco has requested a meeting between Joly and Goncalves to talk about a path toward resuming full employment for workers who have been temporarily laid off.
Joly said Tuesday that the government wants to see Stelco’s proposed plan to recall 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 told reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting in Ottawa.
“I’m always willing to sit down, but that’s the first condition.”
Joly has accused Cleveland-Cliffs of breaking six binding promises made when it bought Stelco, including a five-year commitment to maintain unionized staffing levels and retain most non-unionized workers.
She said Ottawa could still take the company to court to enforce its commitments, seek financial penalties or require the sale of Stelco.
Cleveland-Cliffs said it’s in full compliance with each of its 34 undertakings, and in several important areas has even gone beyond what it committed to do.
“The facts are clear,” Goncalves said in a statement. “We made serious commitments to Canada when we acquired Stelco, and we have honoured them.”
Cleveland-Cliffs announced plans on Sept. 28 to lay off up to 500 workers at Stelco’s Hamilton Works and Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, Ont., blaming U.S. tariffs, weak demand and an oversupply of imported steel in Canada.
“For galvanized products, the imports of non-automotive galvanized steel that continue to flood the Canadian market remain problematic,” Goncalves said on Monday.
“We want to find a solution for Hamilton and its workers as soon as possible and believe common sense trade policy will make this a reality.”
In response to the company’s claims that Ottawa isn’t doing enough to curb steel dumping, the federal government has pointed to measures aimed at limiting overseas imports, including tighter quotas introduced in December 2025.
Canada also raised tariffs on certain U.S. steel imports, including galvanized steel, to 50 per cent on Sept. 8.
Blair Dickerson, president and chief executive of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, declined to weigh in on the dispute between Cleveland-Cliffs and the federal government but said the industry continues to push Ottawa for stronger protections against unfairly traded steel.
“We have had too many imports of unfairly traded and dumped steel from non-market economies,” she said in an interview. “We have advocated for that to be cracked down on by the federal government.”
Asked whether Ottawa’s existing restrictions are working, Dickerson said they have been partly effective and that the industry is discussing possible changes with federal officials.
However, she stopped short of endorsing Cleveland-Cliffs’ argument that Canada’s market cannot support two domestic galvanized-steel producers alongside current imports.
“I wouldn’t phrase it like that,” she said, stressing the importance of maintaining a strong domestic steel industry.
Dickerson also said Canadian steelmakers have enough production capacity to meet domestic demand for galvanized steel.
She said U.S. tariffs remain the biggest issue facing Canadian steel producers.
“Of the steel that’s produced in Canada every year, half was sent to the United States,” she said. “To have half of that go to a key export market that effectively we’ve been locked out of has been incredibly challenging.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne defended Ottawa’s steel import restrictions Tuesday, despite complaints from Stelco that cheaper foreign steel is continuing to undermine the company’s Hamilton operations.
He said the government is trying to balance steel production with steel consumption in Canada, which he pegged at about 13 million tonnes per year.
But Champagne said Ottawa must also ensure Canadian businesses have access to products that are not manufactured domestically or readily available in certain regions.
“There are certain types of steel, for example, that are not made in Canada (and) you have regional markets,” he told reporters. “In a country as big as Canada … sometimes you need to import steel to make sure that you would have the supply needed at the time needed in the location needed.”
Champagne added: “You need to support workers, you need to support industry and you need also to have these measures to protect the domestic market.”
Conservative MP Michael Guglielmin pressed Joly to provide parliament with the government’s demand letter to Cleveland-Cliffs and ensure steel buyers and manufacturers are represented on Ottawa’s steel task force.
“Stelco workers remain laid off,” he said during question period Tuesday. “Competing press releases do not help workers.”
Cleveland-Cliffs said Stelco will update its compliance report following the Oct. 31 close of the current reporting period.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2026.
Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press
