Algoma Steel will add 500 new jobs in 2026 to keep up with the demand for projects related to nation building.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said she received two commitments from Algoma Steel today after travelling to the Sault to meet with the union and management.
“The first one is within a year, the company will be able to rehire 500 people at Algoma,” she said by phone.
“And the second commitment is the company will be working with the union and the government on a reskilling program to make sure that the workers impacted will be able to get support to be retrained.”
The company will open two new divisions – one for enhanced plate and one for beam – that will help with Prime Minister Mark Carney's plans for nation building and defence.
Calling it a positive visit, Joly said she knew the layoffs were coming but she didn’t know when.
She said she found out on Sunday night that 1,050 people would get the bad news on Monday about being laid off from Algoma Steel as of March 2026.
“My goal was to come quickly to the community to meet with the union, to meet with the company, to be able to get to a place where we would have a plan and clear commitments on the part of the company,” she said.
Joly said the retraining will get employees up to speed to work in one of the new mills or to work in construction or the trades and “they will have much more freedom and power over the next phase of their careers.”
In response to those who criticized the federal government for providing a $400 million loan to Algoma Steel, Joly said Canada needs steel plants that are viable.
“Should one day Canada be in a conflict, we absolutely need to have that sovereign capability.
“We cannot be in a position for the sake of our own national security to have no steel plants working in our country.”
Algoma Steel is a victim of the trade war and it would have gone under if the federal government and the province didn’t provide the company with $500 million, Joly said.
“It was vulnerable before. We knew that there was also the new electric art furnace that was going to have an impact on jobs.
“The 50 tariffs have really had an impact on the company – and if it wasn't for the support we gave in the last month, the company would have gone down,” she said.
“These steel plants are the target of the U.S. administration. They're not the only ones impacted, but they're surely the ones that are the most impacted . . . and so that is why we need to be there to support the community of Sault Ste. Marie.”
Algoma is now getting phone calls and orders from Canadian customers “like they never did before,” Joly said.
Irving Shipyard in Nova Scotia and Seaspan, a shipyard in Vancouver, are two companies that connected with Algoma Steel after Joly encouraged them to reach out.
“Algoma is getting orders from Irving, which I contacted to pressure them to buy from Algoma. I also pressured Seaspan, another shipyard in Vancouver, which I pushed to make sure they would be buying from Algoma.”
MP Terry Sheehan, who also attended today’s meetings, said the government is confident that steel produced in the electric arc furnace will be as good as steel made in the blast furnaces.
“Algoma said the steel will be the quality necessary to supply for the defence industry and for the shipbuilding program.”
Sheehan said three major shipyards have been talking with Algoma Steel and “that’s part of where these jobs are going to come from.”
“I was out in Vancouver in the summer and I was able to see a Canadian Coast Guard ship that was 98-per-cent steel from Algoma.
“There's a lot of other applications and it's just not for the consumption of the Canadian market,” Sheehan said.