Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Wednesday the federal government is consulting its lawyers about remarks by Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. chief executive Lourenco Goncalves suggesting he bought Stelco to protect his company’s U.S. operations from Canadian competition.
She said Ottawa is examining the potential legal implications of his comments as the U.S.-based owner of Stelco has nine days left to demonstrate how it will honour job commitments at its Ontario steel mills.
“We’re in contact with our lawyers … to see what could be the consequences of such confessions,” she told reporters on Parliament Hill, referring to Goncalves’ comments during a televised interview.
Goncalves told CBC News on Tuesday that he bought Stelco because the Canadian company was flooding the U.S. market with steel and undercutting prices.
“I bought Stelco because I could not afford anymore having Stelco flooding the market here in the United States to the detriment of my own company,” he told Power & Politics host David Cochrane.
He added that Stelco was undercutting steel prices in the United States.
Goncalves also said he intends to sell the company in about a year now that he is what he called “persona non grata” in Canada.
“Give me another year,” he said. “I’ll make money, sell the company, and we’re going to generate a few jobs in between.”
Cleveland-Cliffs announced plans on Sept. 28 to lay off up to 500 workers at Stelco’s Hamilton Works and Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, Ont., blaming U.S. tariffs, weak demand and an oversupply of imported steel in Canada.
Meanwhile, Goncalves criticized Joly for publicly discussing potential buyers for Stelco.
“I take a lot of exception to having the Minister of Industry talking openly about talking to buyers,” he said. “The company is not for sale … I will sell the company after we operate the company for a while.”
Goncalves added: “The Minister of Industry is not a realtor of companies.”
Joly previously raised the possibility of forcing Cleveland-Cliffs to sell Stelco under the Investment Canada Act, saying several companies had expressed an interest in acquiring the Canadian steelmaker’s assets.
She declined to give details Wednesday on the interested buyers.
“I won’t be the one revealing that information because obviously that would be confidential,” Joly said.
The escalating dispute between Ottawa and Cleveland-Cliffs was a key topic Wednesday on Parliament Hill, with MPs weighing in on Goncalves’ remarks and the federal government’s efforts to hold the steelmaker to its commitments.
Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner said she believes Cleveland-Cliffs deliberately undermined Stelco’s financial performance after acquiring it to strengthen its U.S. operations.
“They did not want that company to survive,” she said. “He took it over so it would not do well and then he would have a strong position with his U.S. assets.”
Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi, a former international trade lawyer, said Cleveland-Cliffs must honour the legally binding commitments it made when Ottawa approved its acquisition of Stelco, regardless of the company’s reasons for buying the steelmaker.
“Those are ironclad obligations,” he told reporters. “There’s a lot of work that goes into undertaking those obligations, so the minister is absolutely right in this instance in really making sure that the company fulfils its obligation.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28 2026.
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