EDITORIAL: Public kept in dark about Algoma layoffs

When it comes to the $500 million in loan guarantees the federal and Ontario governments gave to Algoma Steel in September, we now know they treated taxpayers who were financing them like mushrooms.

That is, they kept them in the dark and covered them with manure.

These announcements made no mention of the fact Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford knew when they issued the loans – $400 million from the feds, $100 million from the province – that Algoma Steel was going to go ahead with major layoffs regardless of this financial support.

That only came out last week, when Algoma, after announcing it was laying off 1,000 workers at its steel plant in Sault Ste. Marie, revealed both levels of government knew in advance about the impending layoffs when they granted the loans.

The reason for the layoffs is that Algoma is converting from traditional blast furnace to electric arc furnace technology in order to make so-called “green steel,” which produces fewer industrial greenhouse gas emissions but also requires significantly fewer workers to operate.

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The company said the 50% tariff imposed on Canadian steel by U.S. President Donald Trump made it necessary to move the layoffs ahead effective in March, as opposed to the original plan for them to occur sometime in 2027.

Both the Carney and Ford governments said that without their support the layoffs announced by the company last week would have been much worse.

But that’s not the issue. The issue is why wasn’t this information given to the public at the time the loans were made?

The reason is obvious. They wanted to escape any questioning or criticism of the loans at the time they were announced, instead of being open and honest with the public paying for them.

This lack of transparency raises concerns about the billions of dollars our governments are shelling out to support companies impacted by tariffs.

What else haven’t they told us about them – given that it’s now obvious from the Algoma Steel and other examples that this financial support doesn’t come with any job guarantees?

This even though we’re constantly being told the purpose of all this government financial support when these programs are announced is to preserve jobs.