With the deadline for Cleveland-Cliffs‘ layoffs at Stelco fast approaching, Industry Minister Melanie Joly is asking the commissioner of the Competition Bureau to investigate whether the company’s U.S.-based owner is breaking Canadian competition law.
The federal government is asking the competition commissioner to “thoroughly examine whether Cleveland-Cliffs’ conduct in the Canadian marketplace warrants enforcement action under the Competition Act,” Joly said in a statement Friday.
In her letter to the commissioner, Joly said she cited remarks by Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves, who said he “bought Stelco because I could not afford anymore having Stelco flooding the market here in the United States to the determinant of my own company.”
Ottawa has issued several warnings to the steel company, which has already started issuing layoff notices to employees at its Hamilton, Ont., steel plant.
In a letter dated Oct. 29 obtained by Global News and addressed to Stelco’s president, Paul Simon, Joly said she expects a “concrete and credible plan for re-engagement with these workers.”
Stelco began issuing layoff notices to about 500 employees at the beginning of October following an announcement of its plans to pull back on operations at its Hamilton plant.
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The company has said some of the employees laid off in Hamilton will be offered jobs at their Lake Erie facility but the union representing Stelco workers told Global News only 40 jobs have been offered to the impacted employees.
In a letter sent last month, Joly warned Stelco that if they do not reverse the layoffs within 15 days, the federal government will start legal action against the company that could ultimately lead to the parent company Cleveland-Cliffs being forced to divest of the Canadian steel firm.
Cleveland-Cliffs has maintained its position that one of the reasons for the layoffs is the 50 per cent tariff on aluminum and steel imposed by the U.S., which the company’s leadership has publicly supported.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said last month that Cleveland-Cliffs would be making a “mistake” by not respecting its obligations and commitments.
The comments came at an event in Ottawa when Carney was asked by a reporter if, given what has transpired in recent weeks, the federal government felt it was a mistake to allow Cleveland-Cliffs to acquire Stelco in 2024.
“The mistake here would be Cleveland-Cliffs not respecting the obligations, the commitments that they made in the acquisition,” Carney said in response.
–with files from Global’s Rachel Morgan and Ari Rabinovitch
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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