The federal government is spending millions of advertising dollars telling us that they are creating jobs in Canada.

Now, how about spending some of these dollars on once again producing rails here in the Sault?

We could create hundreds of jobs in the Sault and give the Canadian economy a boost at the same time.

I recall my first summer job as a student at the old Algoma Steel. I was a clerk in the rail mill and at that time — back in the 1960’s. The rail mill was a busy place, shipping rails to all parts of the country. Every day railway flat cars piled high with rails, as well as trucks too.

So what happened?

At that time, the federal government in its wisdom moved the rail production to the Sydney Steel Corp. in Nova Scotia — later known as Sysco. But it went broke in 2001, and the mill was dismantled and bought by a company in India and shipped overseas. That left Stelco in Hamilton as the only producer of rails in Canada.

Then the government poured money into Stelco on the proviso that no jobs would be lost in Canada. But the government allowed Stelco to be taken over by U.S. Steel — again with the guarantee that no jobs would be lost. However, it didn’t take long before U.S. Steel moved crucial parts of the Hamilton operation to the U.S.

Did the government do anything? Not as far was we know. And after that it seems that rail production ceased in Canada.

So where do the railways of Canada such as CN and CP get their rails today? According to the Railway Association of Canada rails are now being bought from Rocky Mountain Steel in Colorado as well as Nippon and NKK in Japan.

Let’s bring these jobs back to Canada — and more specifically to the Sault! Sorry Japan but we have a Yen for Canadian dollars!