Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly says Ottawa is consulting its lawyers about remarks by Cleveland-Cliffs\u2019 CEO Lourenco Goncalves, suggesting he bought Stelco to protect his company\u2019s U.S. operations from Canadian competition.<\/p>\n
Goncalves says the company is now counting on increased purchases of Canadian-made steel rather than tighter import restrictions to restore jobs at its Ontario operations.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, as the company faces a deadline to demonstrate how it will honour job commitments, Joly says the federal government is examining the potential legal implications of his comments, in a CBC interview saying he bought Stelco because the Canadian company was flooding the U.S. market with steel and undercutting prices.<\/p>\n
She says his confessions during the televised interview could influence Ottawa\u2019s ongoing enforcement action.<\/p>\n
WATCH MORE: Joly calls on Cleveland-Cliffs for concrete plan to restore Stelco jobs<\/a><\/p>\n Goncalves also said he intends to sell the company in about a year.<\/p>\n Cleveland-Cliffs announced plans in September to lay off hundreds of workers at Stelco\u2019s Hamilton works, and Lake Erie works, blaming U.S. tariffs, weak demand, and an oversupply of imported steel in Canada.<\/p>\n Victor Fedeli, Ontario\u2019s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, says Cleveland-Cliffs keeps changing their story.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day they come up with something different, a different kind of story, you know?,\u201d said Fedeli. \u201cDon\u2019t forget, these are the people \u2014 Cleveland-Cliffs \u2014 that endorsed the tariffs against Canada for steel. They have been bad actors for us right from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n