Oh Canada, comments from a past posting

June 2009

Oh Canada... 

Dear MP/MPP

It has been some time since I was employed in the steel industry. Much has happened, most of it not very good for the country and the industry. Is it not time we take a serious look at our current scene and try to do something about it.

Dosco, Sidney Steel, Burlington Steel, the mighty Algoma and finally Stelco, all have disappeared, scrapped, shut down or whatever happens to old and no longer competitive steel mills or industries.

The Steel Company of Canada, Hamilton ,was sold to the US Giant United States Steel,run for a while with the infusion of 100 Million Dollars from Ontario and yet this steel producer, Canada's largest was recently shut down.

Now abandoned it is extremely difficult to revive this operation with its unique facilities and innovations. This mill kept going even through the depression and never should have been allowed to disappear from the marketplace.

The only still operating large steel mill, Dofasco has a much more limited product range ( flat rolled product line only sheet and plate line, no structural or bar mill products) But even this business has fallen under foreign control apparently bought by the Chinese..

At this time, we have no steel mill in Canada capable of rolling steel rails, structural steel beams or even rod mill products. Even the scrap mill in Ajax Ontario making re-enforcing rods from junk is foreign owned and has limited capacity.

I have recently commented on a blog worldconcerns.blogspot.com/ on train derailments, infrastructure improvements and related matters, we should all be concerned about.