The Current - What 1000 steel layoffs mean for Stault Ste. Marie

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Algoma Steel has announced 1000 layoffs in the coming months even though it received millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars. We talk to the Union president Bill Slater, and Mayor Matthew Shoemaker to discuss what happens next in the community.

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. With the holidays just around the corner, more than a thousand Algoma steelworkers in Sioux-St. Marie, Ontario, will be out of a job come the new year. The cuts are related to both tariffs and to Algoma's transition to an electric arc furnace, the steelmaking of the future. These job cuts come just months after the federal government, along with the province of Ontario,

gave the company $500 million in financing to help weather the tariff damage. But there was nothing in that money about keeping jobs. Our colleague, J.P. Tasker, spoke with the CEO of Algoma Steel, Michael Garcia, yesterday, and asked him whether that loan is a good bet for taxpayers. I think it is. Every modern domestic, secure democracy in the world has a viable, secure steel industry. Algoma is going to be the foundation of that industry in Canada. And so to the extent that a country needs, from a security standpoint, from an economic growth standpoint, from the standpoint of being able to build Canada strong, they need a vibrant steel industry.

And I think that's where this investment plays a role. There's more work to be done as we pivot. We need to diversify our product range to the type of products that the Canadian market will be debil. demanding now and into the future. There's the opportunity to grow the employee base here at Algoma Steel by as much as 500 jobs. So I think the future is bright for Algoma Steel. And I do think that this investment made by the government is an important one and a wise one. Bill Slater is the United Steel Workers Local 2724 president. He represents 150 of the workers being laid off. Bill, good morning. Good morning, Matt. You heard the CEO of Algoma talk about a bright future for

Algoma. How does that square with how the workers you represent are feeling? Right now when you're fearful of losing your job, it's what is on people's mind right now is how they're going to feed their families in the coming months, in the coming days, not in the coming years. I mean, the timing of this, we can talk more about the broad timing, but just weeks before Christmas has got to be a hammer blow. it is it's devastating to the workers and the community these workers had good paying jobs

and they were you know supported a lot of the food banks and other things like that in the community and now there's going to be a big question that they have to ask themselves is can we still afford to do this or do I have to concentrate on feeding my own family. Do the workers know who is going to lose their jobs? I mean, we said a thousand jobs will be cut, but do people know who is going to get that notice? Not exactly.

The notice that went out was to say which jobs were being eliminated. And then we need to go through the process outlined in the CBA through a bumping process to see which members, by their seniority, skills, and ability have the right to maintain employment at Algoma Steel and those that unfortunately are at the bottom of the list and will be able to. I'm sure some people have figured out for themselves, but there's been no official notice. In September, when this $500 million loan was given, the federal jobs minister, Patty Heid, who said the Canadian government will be there

with tools on the training side as workers may need to retool. The government said that this loan, 400 million from the federal government, 100 million from the provincial government, was to protect Canadian jobs. Do you think there should have been a guarantee that certain employment levels would be kept? That if you're going to get money,

you need to keep a certain number of jobs in the plant? Yes. I believe strongly that when blue-collar workers' tax money is used to give to industry that it should be clear on how it is protecting those blue-collar jobs. Do you think the government knew that the layoffs would be following when they cut the check for $500 million? I think they would have been aware of it or else they would have put that as a, you know, a commitment that the company would have had to make in order to receive the money. So when you hear the minister talk about support, that they'll be there with tools on the training side to help retool, what does that support mean for a thousand people who will be out of a job?

Well, I hope that means that the applications that have been put in to start a center here in the suit to support the workers by tying them to grants and things for training happens quickly. and that, you know, the government is there. Matthew Schuemaker, our mayor, has also talked about moving up the port that they want to build here in Sioux-Saint-Marie as well as bringing jobs back to the OLG. And I think those are all things that the government could help to do to make jobs available

to these workers within our community. Can I ask you about the other jobs? You mentioned the OLG and there's talk about this. What are those jobs? And what are the other jobs that people, a thousand jobs in one community is a lot? What are the other jobs that people might be able to find? We have to wait and see if those things happen or not.

There is mining to the north of us that is seeking employees. There's Tenerys's hiring, but it's not, I don't think it's anywhere to the level of the layoffs. So there's definitely going to be people that are successful in those ventures. but there's going to be people that get missed just because the number of jobs that are there don't equal the number of jobs that have disappeared. We talk about the impact of tariffs in this country,

and that's a big word that can mean a lot of different things. What do you want people across the country to know about what is happening in your town now? That a change of government in any country that we rely heavily on for our industries can change overnight. We didn't realize that. This is the first time that it's happened to this extent this quickly. So I think therefore we need to concentrate on supplying things that can be sold in our country

or when we're sending things out to other countries, we need to have lots of baskets to put our eggs in and not have all our eggs in one basket. I appreciate speaking with you again, and we'll talk again, I'm sure, in the future. In the meantime, Bill, thank you very much for this. Thank you. There are two kinds of Canadians, those who feel something when they hear this music, and those who've been missing out so far. I'm Chris Howden.

And I'm Neil Kuxel. We are the co-hosts of As It Happens, and every day we speak with people at the center of the day's most hard-hitting, heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious news stories. Also, we have puns. Here, why, as it happens, is one of Canada's longest running in most beloved shows. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Bill Slater, president of United Steelworkers Local 2724. He mentioned Matthew Shoemaker.

That's the mayor of Sue St. Marie, Ontario. He joins us. Now, Mayor Shoemaker, good morning to you. Good morning. You and I have a bad habit of talking. Sue St. Marie is a great place, but we end up talking about bad news in your town. And this is really bad news. How, as you understand it,

Are people interpreting what has been coming out of Algoma in the last couple of days? Well, they're obviously taking it, you know, very sorrowfully, I think, that there's a realization in the community that this is going to have a big impact, that it will end up having ripple effects across the economy, from grocery stores to restaurants to the hardware store. everybody is going to feel the pain of Algoma because it is such an anchor of our local economy. What are, I mean, and I will say, I'm hoping to get up to the zoo in the new year to talk more about this with people face to face. But what are those ripple effects?

Describe what it means. You talked to us before in October and you said that 40% or 50% of the economy is directly tied or indirectly tied to the steel industry. So what is that going to mean? Yeah. Well, I mean, that includes everything from the salaries at Algoma, which are obviously going to be reduced significantly by 40% of current levels as a result of the layoff. So there's going to be a direct hit there on the purchasing power of multiple families. It impacts, you know, as I said, who goes to the grocery store, how much they spend at the grocery store, the car dealerships, the hardware stores, the restaurants and the recreational activities. activities that people take in, the people that sign up for hockey and soccer, it affects all of that because when the purchasing power goes down, then people have to decide and prioritize where they're going to spend the fewer dollars that are available. Is there another industry or company in town that could replace some of those jobs that are

going to be lost? I mean, there are lots of good industries in town. There's Teneres, which is a steel pipe manufacturer for oil exploration. It used to be historically a division of Algoma Steel. It was sold off to Teneres 25 years ago. There's a press board manufacturer in town. There's several sawmills in the area or in town themselves. There's lots of good small-scale manufacturers or mid-scale manufacturers.

But the plant, the steel plant, I should say, was that. the, and is the, the place that anyone working in industry kind of aspired to work at because it provided the premier level of salary and benefits for a middle class lifestyle in Suisse. So you may, you know, be able to find a job, a handful of jobs at each of those other secondary manufacturing businesses in town, but certainly not enough to replace a thousand workers. You've been lobbying the Ontario government to bring workers from the lottery offices up to the suit. This is OLG, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. How is that going? And again, I mean, are those transferable jobs in some ways?

So I think people can be retrained. That's part of what the federal government is saying they're committed to do. We haven't seen it yet, as Bill Slater said in his reply. But the OLG was established here by the Peterson government in the late 80s, was entirely here in the early 2000s, and then gradually moved away. and what we've been advocating for for more than a decade to the provincial government is move all the OLG jobs to Sioux-Saint-Marie. They call it the head office, but they split all the jobs between the Sioux and Scarborough. And in fact, more of the jobs and all of the executives except one are in Toronto.

So the true, you know, what most people would consider the head office is down there, but we could use the jobs. And if people want to move up, of course, we welcome them to move up. If they don't, retrain Algoma employees to do those jobs. And it'll really give security to our economic base to have that provincial investment, that provincial commitment to the Sioux. And the feds have to play their part as well with, as you heard Bill Slater say, with the port project that's being developed, we need that fast-tracked

so that we can offset some of the more labor-intensive industrial jobs that are going to be lost as a result of this announcement. Would you have wanted some jobs to be protected with the $500 million that was loaned to Algoma to try to keep it in decent shape in the midst of all of this turmoil? Obviously, I would have liked all the jobs to have been protected. So the government, the federal government, the provincial government, the company need to answer for that. And I think you've seen. What is the answer to Michael Garcia? Well, I mean, I don't want to give their answer.

I don't know what the federal government's response would be. You saw Mike Garcia in interviews with the CBC yesterday say that the government knew that this was the plan and loan them the money to ensure the viability of the company overall. So I do think that there remains a significant threat to the steel plant with the 50% tariffs in place, an existential threat, I should say. So I suspect that the answer is without that money, it could have been worse. What are you telling your community right now? This is a hard time at any time. You have the holidays coming. You have uncertainty.

People don't know whether they're going to be the one who's going to get the note saying that they're out of work. What are you telling your community? What I've been saying is that the Sioux is a big family, and we really are. There's very few degrees of separation in the Sioux. It's not uncommon to know more than a handful or multiple dozen people who work at the Steel Plant. my own father, a retiree of the 2724 who worked there for 40 years, but we're a big family and we have to support those who need the support at this very difficult time. And that's what we plan to do, whether it's emotional, you know, uplifting if we can offer

that, whether it's support through advocating for diversification of the economy, whether its support through, you know, helping the unions in their fight for the maintenance of as many of these jobs as possible. I think all of that is on the table and needs to be something that the community rallies around. Prime Minister heading down to Washington later this week to ostensibly meet with Donald Trump. It'll be as part of this World Cup draw, but he'll probably try and sneak a word into Donald Trump's year. What would you say to the Prime Minister if you could get a word into him. I would say that whatever their current strategy is that the government of Canada is using needs to change. And that might mean that they push back harder with counter tariffs. That might mean

that they compromise more on getting a deal done. But I don't know what the response needs to be. But what I do know is that the current strategy that they're deploying is not helping Canadian workers. And so it needs to change to protect more steel industry jobs, more aluminum industry jobs, more softwood lumber industry jobs. Otherwise, the prospect of losing the industry all together is very real. Because what's happening in the Sioux, people across this country, you believe, will be paying attention. If they're not in the steel industry and they're not in your town, but they're in an industry that is vulnerable, they will be watching to see how this plays out there. That's right. This is a microcosm of what will happen in other communities. I mean, Hamilton's

another steel community, right? You've got the mills in Quebec that produce aluminum. You've got all kinds of mills in BC that export softwood. So what happens in the Sioux matters across the country. Mayor Shoemaker, good to speak with you again. Appreciate it. Thank you. Matthew Shoemaker is the mayor of Sioux-St. Marie, Ontario. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.