Last month, some 1,000 workers at the Algoma Steel plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., were told they would soon clock out for the last time. How they — and the rest of the town — will manage through the transition to come is an open question.

Everyone knew that layoffs were coming — just not so fast or so many. The drive to decarbonize everything — from buildings to infrastructure to transportation — is shifting demand to lower-carbon steel. 

Algoma Steel, one of the town’s two major employers, had already seen business dip. Transitioning to lower-emitting Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steel making was the key to staying competitive. But that would mean closing down the mill's blast furnace and coke-making operations. The company had planned a year-long transition to ease the closures. That was, until US President Donald Trump’s unprecedented 50 per cent tariff hit. 

“This … forced a fundamental shift in our competitive reality,” wrote Algoma Steel’s CEO last December. The decision was made to fast-track the EAF transition. Instead of a slow exit, the community now faces a hard turn: 1,000 workers will soon be out of a job — about 300 of whom were laid off in a first wave near the end of March — with few options for equivalent work nearby.

Communities across Canada — from Hanna, Alta,, to Ingersoll, Ont., to Pictou County, N.S. — know this pattern well. Small, rural towns are navigating overlapping........

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