TORONTO — Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said she has sent a formal letter of demand to Cleveland-Cliffs alleging the U.S. company breached the undertakings it made when it bought Stelco in 2024.Joly said Cleveland-Cliffs committed to protect jobs in Hamilton and at Lake Erie and to advocate for tariff-free access of Canadian steel to the United States. She rejected the company’s claim that market conditions have changed.“You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” Joly said. “They cannot champion and take credit for American tariffs that are hurting workers on both sides of the border and then turn around and say that market conditions have changed.”The minister listed three options on the table: forced divestiture of the Canadian assets, financial penalties, and requiring Cleveland-Cliffs to honour its original undertakings. She said potential buyers for the Canadian operations already exist and that the government is prepared to move as quickly as possible. The letter marks the formal start of the legal process under the Investment Canada Act..The announcement took place in Toronto at the headquarters of Waabi, a local artificial-intelligence company that develops autonomous trucking and robotaxi systems. Joly used the same event to launch Canada’s Venture and Growth Capital Plan.The plan commits $1 billion through a new Venture and Growth Capital Catalyst Initiative, split into a $700 million fund-of-funds stream, $200 million for life sciences, and $100 million for emerging managers. An additional $750 million will be deployed through the Business Development Bank of Canada — $75 million at the pre-seed and seed stages and $675 million for growth and late-stage companies.Joly said the combined $1.75 billion in federal spending is intended to attract at least $3.8 billion in private capital, for a total pool of more than $5.5 billion. She called on Canadian pension funds and other large investors to put capital behind domestic startups in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, life sciences and advanced manufacturing.The Stelco action and the venture capital announcement come as Ottawa and Ontario have recently outlined joint spending to support steel and auto sectors hit by U.S. tariffs. Outcomes of both the demand letter and the capital-raising effort remain pending.
