FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
29 September 2026
QUEEN’S PARK, ON – Ontario Liberal Critic for Economic Development and Innovation, Rob Cerjanec, issued the following statement:
The contrast is striking between Stelco idling operations in Hamilton yesterday and the half-hearted expansion of the Protect Ontario Financing Program (POFP).
Since tariffs took hold in Ontario, the Premier and his government have made plenty of announcements.
In May 2025, they announced a $5-billion fund to fight tariffs and protect jobs, only to reduce it to $1 billion. In September 2025, they announced a $100 million loan to Algoma Steel but were silent after being informed 1000 Sault Ste. Marie steelworks would be laid off anyway.
Today, the government is recycling a three-week-old announcement to expand eligibility for newly tariff-impacted sectors, something Ontario Liberals fought for. However, there was no announcement to support the steel industry in Hamilton with yesterday’s idling of Stelco that the government knew about in advance.
Expanding POFP eligibility is a good thing, but the notoriously difficult to access $1-billion fund is a far cry of the $5 billion lifeline Ontario businesses were promised. A year and a half after that promise, they’re still waiting to learn how much support has reached them.
Yesterday at committee, the government could not even give an approximate figure for how much POFP funding has gone out the door. The minister described it as a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ program. Ontario’s economy contracted in both the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. If that wasn’t a break-glass moment, I don’t know what is.
Ontario businesses and the workers they employ need more than selective announcements and reannouncements.
We are calling on the Premier to disclose how much POFP funding has been provided to Ontario businesses to date. We are also calling on him to say when he learned Stelco might idle operations, and exactly what he did, if anything, to stop it.