Joly demands Stelco owner comply with job commitments in new letter, gives 15-day deadline to respond

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has sent Stelco Inc. a new letter demanding it comply with its Investment Canada Act undertakings, and criticized Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CLF-N boss Lourenco Goncalves for repeatedly backing U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steelmakers.

The U.S. steelmaker has 15 days to respond or possibly face legal action.

On Sept. 28, Cliffs subsidiary Stelco announced that it was laying off up to 500 workers in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ont.

The federal government said that by proceeding with layoffs, Ohio-based Cliffs had breached legally binding job commitments from when it acquired Stelco in 2024, including a promise to maintain at least the same number of unionized employees in Canada for five years.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Cliffs had “betrayed” its Canadian work force, and Ms. Joly has repeatedly demanded it comply with its undertakings or possibly face legal action.

In the new letter sent Thursday morning to Stelco president Paul Simon, Ms. Joly detailed multiple examples of the company allegedly violating its legally binding commitments and demanding it comply.

The government is giving the company several options, including complying with its undertakings, providing proof that it isn’t in contravention, or in the case that it is offside, taking steps to address the situation.

Ms. Joly pointed to an undertaking to ensure the average aggregate annual unionized work force at Stelco be no smaller than 1,766 and its salaried work force be no smaller than 603.

Cliffs has “failed to comply with its employment undertakings,” she wrote “and/or has made decisions that will inevitably result in the breach of these undertakings.”

Ms. Joly also said that Cliffs had promised to be “a strong advocate for policies that benefit both the U.S. and Canadian steel industries,” including defending Canada’s exemption to U.S. steel tariffs in 2024.

She pointed to multiple examples of Mr. Goncalves advocating against Canada after the U.S. imposed tariffs on Canadian steel imports last year, including several times he publicly backed Mr. Trump’s trade policies.

In an October, 2025, interview with Politico, the Cliffs CEO said that he was “very happy” with the 50-per-cent tariffs on steel, and in fact took credit for them.

“I have my fingerprints on that 50 percent. In other words, I influenced that,” Mr. Goncalves told Politico.

Cliffs has said that it was forced to issue the layoffs in Canada in large part because of the trade war. It said the 50-per-cent tariffs have made it too hard for it to compete in galvanized steel in the U.S.

Mr. Goncalves has also argued that the trade war is an event that was out of its control and gives it leeway to not honour its commitments.

“Throughout the history of the Investment Canada Act and its predecessor foreign investment acts, it has consistently been understood that changes in circumstances may necessitate the non-enforcement or renegotiation of undertakings,” Mr. Simon wrote in a Oct 9 letter to Ms. Joly.

But Ottawa does not buy this logic. Ms. Joly in her letter said that when Cliffs acquired Stelco the prospect of U.S. trade action against Canada existed.

“The possibility of tariffs on Canadian steel was foreseeable in October 2024, and the Undertakings specifically reflect that possibility,” she wrote.

“However, Cliffs’ Chief Executive Officer subsequently advocated for the very tariffs that Cliffs is now relying on as a basis for non-compliance with the Undertakings.”

Ms. Joly reiterated in the letter that should Cliffs not comply with her demands it could face legal action.