Ed drops by, gets all up in our business (4 photos)

Ed Fast, Minister for International Trade, liked what he saw on his first visit to Sault Ste. Marie Wednesday.

Accompanied by Conservative candidate and incumbent MP Bryan Hayes, Fast met with various community stakeholders at a roundtable discussion Wednesday morning, then toured Heliene's solar panel manufacturing facility and China Steel's specialized steel mill.

"I'm impressed with what I've seen here in Sault Ste. Marie," Fast told SooToday after a tour of China Steel.

"Sault Ste. Marie's industry appears to be diversifying, we don't want to just focus on (big) steel, solar or the service industry…we want to make sure going forward that Canada has a government that understands the need of small to medium size businesses like China Steel, make sure our taxes are low, and right now Canada has the lowest corporate and business taxes within the G7 countries, and we want to continue to be a leader and provide that competitive advantage to Canadian companies as they do business around the world."

"This is my second time touring China Steel and they do a marvellous job and it's important for me to show cabinet ministers what we have to offer the world and I know Minister Fast will be thinking how we can assist companies like China Steel in terms of their export market and I believe there is opportunity big time, and we'll be here to help," Hayes said.

"Things are busy but we have an oil price problem in the world, so we're looking for new customers…(defence contractor) GDLS has been one of our anchors and we're doing a lot of prototypes for them (for land vehicles), and hopefully soon they'll will give us more orders," said Fred China, China Steel president.

"I appreciate the Minister and Mr. Hayes to be here today, it's very important for Sault Ste. Marie."

China Steel is a well-established Sault Ste. Marie firm that specializes in customized equipment manufacturing and steel fabrication for clients in Northern Ontario, as well as province-wide, nation-wide and overseas.

China said there are currently about 37 employees at the mill.

Earlier Wednesday, before the roundtable meeting held at the Delta Sault Ste. Marie Waterfront Hotel and Conference Centre, Fast said the federal government is standing on guard for Canada when it comes to international trade.

One trade issue which has directly affected the Sault has led to major layoffs at Tenaris Algoma Tubes.

The layoffs are due largely to the falling price of oil, but another reason for the misery is the dumping of unfairly priced imports of pipe into the Canadian market from several countries.

"In fact, over the last year we have actually improved the ability of  the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) to address dumping," Fast told SooToday.

"It's one of my responsibilities as trade minister to undertake steps and actions that will ensure Canadian companies like Tenaris and Essar Steel Algoma are doing business on a level playing field, so we have been very aggressive in imposing anti-dumping duties against products that are being dumped."

"We're very serious about that," Fast said.

"The industry relies so heavily on Canada being able to get our oil and gas products out to market."

With an election campaign underway, Fast said "our Conservative government has focused very much on streamlining the approval process (for various pipeline projects) and every step along the way our Liberal and especially NDP friends have been saying 'no' (to pipeline projects), we don't want to export our products, not even from one end of the country to another, effectively shutting down our oil and gas industry." 

Fast also pointed to a January cancellation (at least for the time being) by the government of Alaska of a ferry terminal overhaul project, as a Canadian trade victory.

The U.S. tried to invoke "Buy America" provisions on the construction project, which is located in Canada.

"They tried to do that on Canadian soil…we said 'no, you will not build it,' and we actually triggered a very rarely used piece of legislation to apply full Canadian sovereignty over that project and Alaska had to walk away, so that ferry terminal project is a classic case of where our government has stepped in and used the tools at our disposal to resist any efforts to undermine the level playing field our steel industry expects."  

Stakeholders at Wednesday morning's roundtable included Essar Steel Algoma, the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce, Heliene, Tenaris Algoma Tubes and the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation (SSMEDC).

(PHOTO: Fred China, China Steel president, speaks with Ed Fast, Minister for International Trade and Sault MP Bryan Hayes during a tour of China Steel, August 26, 2015. Darren Taylor/SooToday)