Dominion Steel and Coal

Dominion Steel and Coal, Dosco, tied Cape Breton coal to the Sydney steelworks. The mill made rails, billets, bars, rods, wire and nails. It also had finishing plants in Quebec and Ontario, including a rolling mill at Contrecoeur. Hawker Siddeley bought Dosco in 1957.

It was a principal private employer in industrial Cape Breton. The 1967 closure threat is what brought the Crown into both the mines and the mill.

Why it mattered

Dosco tied Cape Breton coal to a local steel mill and was a principal private employer in industrial Cape Breton. The Sydney works made rails and semi-finished steel for Canadian railways and markets; the 1967 closure threat prompted federal and provincial takeovers to keep mines and the mill running.

Now

Nova Scotia took the Sydney mill as SYSCO on 1 January 1968; the mill later shut. The federal DEVCO took the coal mines in 1968. Quebec’s Sidbec took the remaining Dosco steel plants; those works later sat under ArcelorMittal Montréal.

Changed hands (1968) · Now: SYSCO (Sydney mill, later shut); DEVCO (coal); Sidbec-Dosco / later ArcelorMittal Montréal (Quebec mills)