With layoffs looming, Algoma Steel immigrant worker worried about family’s future in Canada

As 1,000 or so Algoma Steel workers prepare to get laid off in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., this March, many of them will be focused on finding new employment in the region. 

But for steel mill employee Mayurkumar Lad, he hasn’t been able to stop worrying about his family’s future in Canada. 

The 38-year-old is an immigrant worker from India who moved to the country with his wife and young daughter in 2022. He’s been working as a stationary engineer at Algoma Steel since 2024. 

He applied for permanent residency nearly 18 months ago through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP).

Partnered with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the OINP was designed to provide a fast-track to permanent residency for international workers with skills that are considered a benefit to the Canadian economy.

Citing major backlogs, delays and recent policy changes with the program, Lad doesn’t expect to find out whether he’ll be approved for permanent residency until early 2027 — well after he loses his job at the mill.

Because Lad must be employed with Algoma Steel to keep his application intact, he fears his pathway to permanent residency could encounter further delays or fall through completely. 

Mike Da Prat, the union president representing the majority of workers at Algoma Steel, told CBC a number of employees facing layoffs have raised Lad’s exact concern.

Lad and other Algoma Steel immigrant workers are now calling on provincial and federal levels of government to provide them with a special exemption that would keep their applications active.

“I’m not losing my job because of misconduct, and the company is not shutting down the business overnight because of a normal thing,” Lad explained. “We’re having operational limitations because of the tariffs.”

“I’m at risk of losing not just my job, but my entire permanent residency application. If I’m laid off, I may become ineligible, despite doing everything correctly. The consequences fall entirely on workers like me who followed every rule.”

In an email to CBC, an OINP spokesperson said that if an employment situation changes at any point, including due to a layoff, then it may affect the employee’s application or nomination.

However, the OINP said the laid-off employee could still be eligible for other provincial or federal immigration streams that don’t require a job offer, including Ontario’s Express Entry Human Capital Priorities stream.

But at this point, Lad said he hasn't been granted any assurances.