Office of Terry Sheehan
Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie
Photos: Visit by MP Sheehan to Algoma Steel and the White House in Washington, D.C.
News Release
MP Terry Sheehan re-elected as Co-chair of All Party Steel Caucus
Steel Caucus and federal government provided unprecedented support to Sault’s steel industry
(Sault Ste. Marie, ON—24 November 2022)
The House of Commons All-Party Steel Caucus has re-elected MP Terry Sheehan as co-chair of the All-Party Steel Caucus. Sheehan will continue to champion the cause of the steel industry in Sault Ste. Marie and Canada, as he has done since he was first elected in 2015.
Sheehan has been wildly successful in his efforts to protect and promote steel production in Sault Ste. Marie in the face of the Section 232 tariff threat issued by the President of the United States; the dumping of cheap steel from overseas manufacturers; and from the existential threat to the steel industry by climate change. He also played a role in the launch of the economic development program designed to support innovation and growth in small, medium and large sized Steel enterprises, by investing in them, to strengthen their productivity and competitiveness. Advocating for this funding to make sure that the steel industry in the Sault and Canada would be sustained for generations.
International Trade challenges tested the government’s resolve, early on in their mandate.
Algoma Steel was exporting a majority of its steel to the United States when the White House put a 25 per cent tariff on steel imported from Canada. The Canadian government rallied to get Section 232 tariffs removed, in part by imposing countervailing duties on a whole host of products manufactured in the United States. This strategy was ultimately successful.
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal helped to limit the dumping of cheap steel into Canada from abroad. In terms of the dumping of cheap steel from abroad, Canada’s Bill C-101 allowed the imposition of safeguard measures on certain imports. It gave the federal government the ability to protect Canadian workers and producers in the steel industry from the harmful effects of substantiated surges in imports.
MP Sheehan was named co-chair of the All Party Steel Caucus immediately after the election, and was later named member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade; and the chair of the Northern Ontario Caucus.
MP Sheehan later began travelling to meetings in Washington for the International Trade Committee as part of the “charm offensive” around negotiations in support of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was eventually settled, and came into effect on July 1, 2020. His meetings focused on opportunities for economic development facilitated by free trade. Sheehan continued to push back against the illegal American tariffs placed on steel and aluminum. He reminded Republican and Democratic politicians alike that we needed to work together to improve our industries and supply chains which were among the strongest in the world.
At the same time, the federal government helped Algoma Steel and secondary steel manufacturers with their plans for the future, involving product diversification and growth.
Early in 2019, the federal government made a $90 million investment into Algoma Steel for projects that adopted new technologies, improved productivity, and sustained competitiveness in the global markets. Those improvements were to help Algoma Steel modernize its core production assets including the steel rolling and steel plate mills, which would position the company to offer a wider range of steel grades and increase production capabilities.
The launch of the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation, Steel and Aluminum Initiative, a $100 million program, was designed to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in strengthening their productivity. Companies that used steel or aluminum could apply for non-repayable contributions for investment into innovative projects that would create and maintain jobs, as well as promote economic growth through adoption of innovative technologies and processes.
To deal with emissions from the steel-making process, the federal government supported Algoma Steel’s efforts.
The federal government provided a grant of $4 million from the Low Carbon Economy Fund to upgrade its equipment, which was used to improve both the tar removal and light oil recovery areas of the coke making plant. The process not only helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also helped improve local air quality showing that the environment and the economy can complement one another.
Ultimately, in a dramatic, historic move, the federal government provided Algoma Steel $420 million to retrofit their operations and phase out its coal-fired steel-making process. This was to be accomplished by the purchase and installation of an electric arc furnace. Mayor Christian Provenzano said that this announcement was the largest and most important public funding announcement in Sault Ste. Marie’s history.
Emissions will be reduced dramatically, a 70 per cent carbon reduction, one of the largest sustainable reductions in Canada. Hundreds of high-skilled, well-paying jobs were also created including 75 positions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This process was expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than three million metric tonnes per year by 2030. This made Sault Ste. Marie a leader in fighting climate change.
Support for Tenaris Algoma Tubes has also been a high priority.
The federal government provided $16 million to help Tenaris Algoma Tubes to increase product lines and efficiencies, and create dozens of jobs.
Sheehan announced a $5 million repayable contribution to Tenaris Algoma Tubes to help consolidate Tenaris’s pipe manufacturing operations in Canada into one location at Algoma Tubes, making it Canada’s only seamless steel pipe manufacturer that uses advanced manufacturing technologies to produce differentiated pipe products for Canada’s oil and gas sector.
Specifically, these funds were to assist in the construction and equipping of the mill with an electric resistance welded line for the manufacture of welded pipe. In addition, the funding was to help with information technology improvements to increase automation and productivity. This strategic investment was expected to create 50 jobs during the construction phase and 75 new full-time jobs by the end of 2021.
An investment of more than $21 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund ($16 million) and the Federal Economic Development Fund for Northern Ontario (Fednor) ($5 million) supported projects at Algoma Tubes, to advance important modernization of equipment and for expansion of the workforce. At that time, Tenaris was able to enhance its portfolio of made-in-Canada solutions to serve domestic customers better, providing security of supply and product diversity with a robust industrial system that was strengthened by its global capabilities.
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Contact:
Sandra Paul
Office of MP Terry Sheehan
705-941-2901
