On the ground in Terrebonne, Quebec, the scene is a fabrication floor that already runs itself in places: ten production bays, one of them fully automated, robotic arms cutting steel with fifteen years of practice behind them. Into this room walked the Minister of Industry on 2 July 2026, and the news she carried was a cheque. The federal government is putting $12.5 million through its Strategic Response Fund into a $52.3 million ADF Group program to upgrade and modernize specialized steel plants here and in Métabetchouan, on the Lac-Saint-Jean side of the province.
What the money buys, concretely: new equipment at Terrebonne to fulfill a multi-year contract supplying Hydro-Québec with power pylons, and a modernization at Métabetchouan, home to the recently acquired subsidiary Groupe LAR, for the heavy steelwork the hydroelectric sector demands. The government counts at least 100 new jobs and more than 525 existing ones maintained over the project’s course. The Groupe LAR purchase, which closed in September 2025, came with a $104.5 million order book and positioned the company for Hydro-Québec’s Action Plan 2035, a program calling for up to $185 billion in energy infrastructure investment over the coming decade.
The voices in the room made the politics plain. “Canada’s steel industry is a cornerstone of our economic strength and a driver of our industrial future,” Minister Mélanie Joly said. “This investment in ADF Group Inc. aligns with our government’s plan to support Canadian workers, strengthen domestic manufacturing and build economic resilience.” Quebec Economy Minister Bernard Drainville pointed at the tariff weather next door: “In the current context of U.S. tariffs, it’s more important than ever to strengthen our supply chain and support our manufacturers so that they remain among the best performing in North America,” he said. And ADF’s chief financial officer, Jean-François Boursier, framed the money as survival mathematics, thanking Ottawa, Quebec and Investissement Québec for the means “to stay competitive in light of the various challenges we are facing, to further strengthen our position across all our markets and to work toward our goal of sustainable growth.”
The backdrop explains the urgency. Tariff uncertainty weighed on ADF’s revenues in the comparable quarter last year, and its backlog is now 72% Canadian, a quiet vote of no confidence in export markets. The company, founded in Laval in 1956 and public since 1999, has already spent $30 million on robotization over fifteen years and describes itself as a North American pioneer of automated fabrication; its latest quarter disclosed $9 million of capital spending, an ERP software overhaul included. The federal fund behind this cheque has been busy: in May it committed $76.2 million to Tenaris toward a $305.9 million steel modernization in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and in each case public money followed private capital already committed. Ottawa layered on more context: Canada turns out more than 12 million metric tonnes of crude steel annually, directly employing some 23,000 people and supporting 100,000 more, and a $1.3 billion lumber-and-steel plan landed in December 2025. The workforce clock is ticking too, with 27% of manufacturing workers aged 55 or older, 40,000 retirements expected annually through 2031, and only 12% of Canadian businesses using AI in production across the span from mid-2024 to mid-2025.
By nightfall in Terrebonne, the announcement was a number on a page; what residents will actually see arrives slower, an expanded floor, a hundred more pay packets, pylons marching toward a grid that Quebec intends to rebuild at historic scale. The steel was already being cut by machines. Now the state has decided to bet on the people who keep them fed.
Sources
- Ottawa backs a Quebec steelmaker's $52M automation bet – Digital Journal
- Minister Joly announces significant federal investment in ADF Group Inc.’s project to strengthen Canada’s domestic steel production – Canada.ca
