Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has asked the Competition Bureau to examine Cleveland-Cliffs’ conduct after comments made by Stelco’s acquirer’s CEO about Canadian steel competition in the U.S.
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Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she has asked the Competition Bureau to examine whether Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. acted in bad faith when it acquired Stelco Inc.
In a letter to the competition commissioner, Joly pointed to testimony by Cleveland-Cliffs chief executive Lourenco Goncalves at a U.S. congressional hearing in January 2026, where Goncalves said the company acquired Stelco in part to prevent Canadian steel from flooding the U.S. market.
Joly said Goncalves made similar claims publicly last month, which she said indicates Cleveland-Cliffs disregarded fair competition in the Canadian market. “For the workers at Stelco’s facilities in Hamilton and Nanticoke, this was a shocking admission, as it was for the government,” she said in a statement posted on X on Friday.
Joly said in her letter that the Competition Bureau “may wish to thoroughly examine” Cleveland-Cliffs’ conduct and whether it warrants enforcement action under the Competition Act. She said the bureau had reviewed the takeover deal in 2024 and issued a no-action letter, but she is now prompting more scrutiny “in light of new evidence regarding the intent of the firm’s conduct.”
Stelco had announced plans on Sept. 28 to lay off up to 500 workers at its Hamilton and Nanticoke steel mills, citing U.S. tariffs, weak demand for Canadian steel and competition from imported steel products.
Cleveland-Cliffs and the union later confirmed that 175 workers have been laid off so far, all in Hamilton.
Joly previously accused Cleveland-Cliffs of championing U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel despite its commitment to support Canada’s steel industry, then using those same tariffs to justify job cuts. In an Oct. 22 letter, she demanded the company make good on job commitments made when it bought Stelco and gave the company 15 days to respond or face potential legal action from the federal government.
Joly’s letter to the Competition Bureau on Friday came the same day as Ottawa’s 15-day deadline. The federal government said that if the company fails to comply with its employment commitments, it could ask a court to order it to meet those commitments, pay penalties of up to $10,000 a day or force a sale of Stelco.
Cleveland-Cliffs did not respond to a request for comment.
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