Sault Ste. Marie MP says Algoma Steel loans ‘absolutely critical’ to its survival

OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump tried and failed to “wipe Algoma Steel off the map” with his punishing tariffs, Sault Ste. Marie-Algoma MP Terry Sheehan said Wednesday.

Sheehan said the financial lifeline the federal and provincial governments have offered the steel plant is “absolutely critical” to its survival.

“The 50 per cent tariffs were meant to wipe Algoma Steel off the map. That’s one of (Trump’s) plans, to decimate the steel industry around the world,” Sheehan told reporters on Parliament Hill outside the Liberal caucus meeting room on Wednesday.

Ottawa announced Monday that Algoma Steel Group Inc. will receive $500 million in federal and provincial loans to help it reorient its business to cope with the impact of the trade war.

Ottawa’s $400 million in financial assistance comes from the Large Enterprise Tariff Loan program, a $10-billion tariff relief fund set up in March. The Ontario government is lending $100 million to Algoma.

“This will allow them to pivot to the future, to diversify what and how they produce,” Sheehan said. “Because right now, 50 to 60 per cent of their steel is going to the United States and a 50 per cent tariff was just not sustainable.”

Algoma Steel’s CEO Michael Garcia has said Trump’s 50 per cent steel tariffs effectively closed off the American market to Canadian steel.

Sheehan said that while it could take 18 months to two years to pivot the domestic steel industry away from the U.S. market, that will only make it more resilient.

“What we have to do is make sure that our industries have the opportunities to produce those goods, such as steel, aluminum, wood, in our major building projects, including retooling and rebuilding our military,” he said.

Sheehan said some 8,000 pensioners living in Sault Ste. Marie rely on the steel plant’s survival, along with scores of small and medium-sized businesses.

The backbench MP said he wants to put forward a new national strategy for steel that strengthens the domestic industry for the long term.

“In 2018, unfortunately, the steel industries, quite frankly, didn’t diversify enough and they went back to their old markets — and we saw that movie again,” he said.

“I can’t tell you what’s going to happen in the future in American politics, but we have to be prepared for whatever Trump’s legacy is.”

In the spring of 2018, during his first administration, Trump announced that he would impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel that summer. Canada and the U.S. entered into a tariff fight that lasted until May 2019.

Trump intensified his trade war again this week by signing an executive order to slap a 10 per cent tariff on softwood lumber, and a 25 per cent tariff on kitchen cabinets and other wooden furniture, as of Oct. 14.

On Wednesday, the United Steelworkers union denounced Trump’s latest trade war escalation and urged Ottawa to retaliate.

“Canada cannot afford to keep playing defence in the face of these attacks,” said Marty Warren, the union’s national director, in a statement sent to media.

The Canadian Steel Producers Association has called for Canada to take stronger retaliatory measures in response to Trump’s attack on Canadian steel. It wants a 50 per cent tariff on all U.S. steel imports.

In April, Ottawa ordered a 6-month remission of Canadian tariffs on U.S. imports of goods used in Canadian manufacturing and processing, including steel and aluminum. The steel producers want the government to terminate that remission.

The Canadian Institute of Steel Construction has called for a stronger reply to U.S. tariffs. It’s also seeking exemptions for key imported construction products not made by Canadian firms, such as wide-flange steel beams, which look like I-beams but are heavier.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has accused Carney of failing in his efforts to remove the steel sector tariffs and has repeatedly called for an end to the industrial carbon price — something he has said would make it easier for Canadian companies to compete.

“Here we are, six months after Mark Carney promised he was going to negotiate a win with the Americans, lumber tariffs have more than doubled and they’re rising again,” Poilievre said of the latest Trump tariffs after question period on Wednesday.

“While Mark Carney breaks his promise, puts his elbows down and gets trampled on by foreign leaders, our workers lose their jobs.”

Federal cabinet ministers vowed Wednesday to keep the country’s supply management system off the table as trade talks with the U.S. progress.

When asked by reporters Wednesday about Trump’s latest tariffs and whether Canada will match them, Carney replied curtly, “It’s a broad range of issues we’re discussing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2025.

— With files from Craig Lord