Hamilton’s steel sector just absorbed another brutal hit, and this time the Ford government knew it was coming. Stelco announced Monday it will idle its Hamilton operations indefinitely, eliminating more than 350 jobs as U.S. tariffs continue battering Canadian industry.
The layoffs land just days after company executives briefed provincial officials on what loomed. Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli confirmed the government received advance notice, telling Global News the conversation happened “quite recently” and “within days” of the public announcement. He stressed, however, that nothing became official until employees and union representatives learned the details.
Stelco, owned by Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., blamed the shutdown directly on American steel tariffs and restricted steel imports from other markets. The company offered affected workers positions at its Nanticoke facility, roughly 70 kilometres south of Hamilton.
This marks the third tariff-related layoff wave the Ford government has seen coming before workers did. In summer 2025, Diageo tipped off the premier’s office one day before announcing it would close its Crown Royal bottling plant in Amherstburg. Later that year, Algoma Steel gave similar warning ahead of cutting 1,000 positions.
In those earlier cases, the province stepped in. Ford personally phoned Diageo Canada’s chief executive to explore keeping the plant operational. Algoma received a $100 million taxpayer-backed loan to soften the blow.
What the government offered Stelco remains unclear. Fedeli refused to disclose whether the steelmaker declined financial support or applied for temporary funding programs. “We don’t speak about the specifics of who obtained what and where,” he said, deflecting questions about why additional funding failed to keep the Hamilton mill running.
United Steelworkers Local 1005, representing Stelco employees, called the news devastating. Union president Ron Wells confirmed the company cited U.S. tariffs and limited foreign steel imports as the driving forces behind the closure. The union faces an uncertain timeline for workers while provincial officials stay quiet about any rescue attempts.
