{"id":688678,"date":"2026-10-18T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=688678"},"modified":"2026-10-18T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T18:00:00","slug":"canadian-government-threatens-to-punish-steel-maker-over-tariff-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=688678","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Government Threatens To Punish Steel Maker Over Tariff Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Canadian Government Threatens To Punish Steel Maker Over Tariff Layoffs<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>The fundamental nature of socialist economics is to use governments to rig markets in favor of certain groups and outcomes.\u00a0 Canada has been exploiting this dynamic for decades (along with their proximity to the largest consumer market in the world), in order to secure optimal benefit for their GDP and their liberal leadership.\u00a0 US tariffs, love them or hate them, are one of the few mechanisms available to level the playing field against countries (and corporations) that abuse global trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rather than admitting that the jig is up and accepting that trading with the US is going to require more balanced arrangements from now on, the Mark Carney Administration has decided that Canada is entitled to special privileges when engaging in commerce with America.\u00a0 If they can&#8217;t have unfair advantages, then they will go to war with the US instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/CanadaSteel1.jpg\" data-link-option=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/CanadaSteel1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"2c256634-d5b8-48dc-8643-3a8b7b698d62\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/CanadaSteel1.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It sounds like madness given that Canada relies on the US for over 76% of their export sales, and exports are over 30% of Canada&#8217;s total GDP.\u00a0 \u00a0Meanwhile, the US only sells 16% of its exports in Canada, and exports make up a comparatively small 11% of American GDP.\u00a0 There&#8217;s no debating it:\u00a0 Without the US, Canada&#8217;s economy will implode.\u00a0 Without Canada, the US will barely notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Carney&#8217;s war campaign is already off to a rocky start, with 42,000 jobs lost in August and another 68,000 jobs lost in September.\u00a0 That&#8217;s 110,000 workers laid off in only two months in a country with a population roughly the same size as California.\u00a0 The majority of these losses are due to Canadian-based manufacturers and companies shifting operations outside the country, or shuttering factories until the tariff situation changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>These mass layoffs are embarrassing Carney, who ran his campaign on a platform of big job gains.\u00a0 In response, the liberals are applying typical socialist pressure in order to prevent job losses from continuing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa is weighing legal options against steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs (the U.S. owner of Canada-based steelmaker Stelco) after the company rejected a federal demand to stop planned layoffs.\u00a0 Current projections expect around Stelco layoffs for approximately 500 employees.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To put this in perspective, consider the audacity of the threat:\u00a0 A US based company opens steel plants in Canada and creates thousands of jobs.\u00a0 Tariff negotiations fall apart because the Canadian government is too greedy to accept more balanced trade standards.\u00a0 Tariffs then force Canadian based manufacturers to make cuts to stay solvent.\u00a0 The Canadian government that demands those companies continue employing Canadian workers at a loss, and if they don&#8217;t, they will face fines, lawsuits and other legal punishments.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly said the government expects Stelco to honor the employment undertakings it gave under the Investment Canada Act when Cleveland-Cliffs acquired the company in 2024 (Selco had little choice in the matter and this was before tariffs were considered a possibility).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Those commitments included maintaining at least the same number of unionized employees and the vast majority of non-unionized employees for five years. Joly stated that a business decision or change in market conditions cannot justify non-compliance, and that \u201ceverything is on the table.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, they don&#8217;t care about the extraordinary circumstances of the trade war they created.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under Section 40 of the Investment Canada Act, possible measures include financial penalties, a court order requiring compliance, or an order forcing the company to sell its Canadian assets (which would create far more job losses). Joly did not confirm that court action would be launched; she said the government is reviewing Cleveland-Cliffs\u2019 letter and remains open to discussions.\u00a0 Stelco has already begun the layoffs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You create jobs in their country, and then they decide this is your obligation instead of you doing them a solid.\u00a0 In other words, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.\u00a0 This is the way of socialism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Carney was supposed to be the liberal but &#8220;improved option&#8221; over former Primer Minister Justin Trudeau, who left the office in disgrace and the nation with a faltering economy.\u00a0 However, Carney is proving to be even more of a disaster than Trudeau.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The liberals in Canada have also been beating their chests and posturing over the trade war, declaring that they don&#8217;t need the US and will find &#8220;better partners&#8221; who &#8220;share their values&#8221;.\u00a0 This is clearly not going to go the way they imagine, given the immense cost increases associated with exporting to anyone other than the US.\u00a0 There is no viable consumer replacement for the US market.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Layoffs are likely to accelerate in Canada over the next several months unless a deal is struck in the near term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" lang=\"\" class=\"username\" xml:lang=\"\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Sun, 10\/18\/2026 &#8211; 14:00<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/CanadaSteel1.jpg\" title=\"Canadian Government Threatens To Punish Steel Maker Over Tariff Layoffs\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian Government Threatens To Punish Steel Maker Over Tariff Layoffs The fundamental nature of socialist economics is to use governments to rig markets in favor of certain groups and outcomes.\u00a0 Canada has been exploiting this dynamic for decades (along with their proximity to the largest consumer market in the world), in order to secure optimal&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=688678\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Canadian Government Threatens To Punish Steel Maker Over Tariff Layoffs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-688678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=688678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=688678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=688678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=688678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}