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Sydney Steel Corporation (SYSCO) was a
Crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
in the province of
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
, Canada. It owned and operated a steel mill in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
.


Early history of steelmaking in Sydney

An integrated steel mill was established on the southeast side of Sydney Harbour in the Whitney Pier neighbourhood of
Sydney, Nova Scotia Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolv ...
in 1901 by American investors. This entity was named
Dominion Iron and Steel Company Limited The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (also DOSCO) was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger ...
(DISCO). Coal from the Dominion Coal Company Limited (DOMCO) was used to create coke to fuel the
blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...
s for smelting
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
which arrived from Bell Island in
Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
. In 1920, DISCO, the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company (SCOTIA) in
Sydney Mines Sydney Mines (Scottish Gaelic: ''Mèinnean Shidni'') is a community and former town in Canada's Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Founded in 1784 and incorporated as a town in 1889, Sydney Mines has a rich history in coal producti ...
, and the Wabana ore mine on Bell Island were acquired by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO). In 1930, BESCO reorganized as
Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (also DOSCO) was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger o ...
(DOSCO).
Hawker Siddeley Canada Hawker Siddeley Canada was the Canadian unit of the Hawker Siddeley Group of the United Kingdom and manufactured railcars, subway cars, streetcars, aircraft engines and ships from the 1960s to 1980s. History Founded in 1962 as the Canadian divi ...
purchased DOSCO in 1957.


Donald Commission

Hawker Siddeley sought to eliminate money losing operations and in 1965, DOSCO announced that its mines had only 15 years of production left and concluded that the cost of opening new underground mines in the Sydney Coal Field would be too expensive. The company made its intentions clear that it would be exiting the coal mining business within months. DOSCO's continued operation of its steel mill, lacking modernization and far removed from the steel markets of the midwest and central Canada, was tentative at best. In response to a vast public outcry in industrial
Cape Breton County Cape Breton County is one of eighteen counties in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located on Cape Breton Island. From 1879 to 1995, the area of the county excluded from towns and cities was incorporated as the Municipality of th ...
, the
Minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
of Prime Minister
Lester Pearson Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian scholar, statesman, diplomat, and politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of ...
announced J.R. Donald would head a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Cape Breton coal industry, with hearings held in 1965 and 1966. The Donald Commission recommended that a federal
Crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
be established to acquire and manage DOSCO's coal operations, with the aim being to slowly wean the Sydney area economy off the coal industry. ::''"Future planning should be based on the assumption that the Sydney mines will not operate beyond 1981."'' On July 7, 1967 the
Cape Breton Development Corporation The Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was a Government of Canada Crown corporation. It ceased operation on December 31, 2009, after being amalgamated with Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC). DEVCO was organized primarily in ...
, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.


Nationalization

On December 1, 1967, the provincial government established Sydney Steel Corporation (SYSCO) under an act of the provincial legislature. to operate DOSCO's steel mill for a period of 12 months until the steel mill could be resold to another private operator. On March 30, 1968 DEVCO
expropriated Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
DOSCO's coal mines and the Sydney and Louisburg Railway, settling for a payment of $12 million. The federal government's plans to gradually shut down coal operations during the 1970s were derailed by rising world energy prices and changes in political priorities. Similarly, the provincial government's 1-year temporary commitment to transitioning ownership of the steel mill from DOSCO turned into a 33-year commitment, adding over $1 billion to the cash-strapped province's debt. SYSCO became a
political football A political football is a topic or issue that is seized on by opposing political parties or factions and made a more political issue than it might initially seem to be. "To make a political football" ut of somethingis defined in William Safire' ...
for economically depressed
Industrial Cape Breton Industrial Cape Breton is a geographic region in the Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It refers to the eastern portion of Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton County fronting the Atlantic Ocean on the southeastern part of Cape Bre ...
and no provincial government dared to shut it down, opting instead to use heavily subsidized federally produced DEVCO coal for coking fuel to continue running the antiquated mill. Over time, the provincial government gave limited capital investments to SYSCO from the late 1970s into the early 1980s. In the mid-1980s the provincial government of premier John Buchanan decided to modernize the steel mill prior to selling it to the private sector. This modernization changed the steel making process from a fully integrated oxygen blast plant using iron ore into an electric arc mini mill using scrap steel. The blast process fuelled by coke was mothballed in favour of using electricity to smelt the scrap recycled metal brought in by rail.


Closure

With no purchasers from the private sector and tumultuous steel markets during the 1990s, the provincial government began to seek ways to rid itself of SYSCO. Numerous proposals for sale to foreign and domestic companies came and went, raising and lowering the hopes of Sydney and its surrounding area each time announcements were made and then promises broken. Finally, the Progressive Conservative government of
John Hamm John Frederick Hamm (born April 8, 1938) is a Canadian physician and politician, who served as the 25th premier of Nova Scotia from 1999 to 2006. Education Hamm, a graduate of the University of King's College and Dalhousie University, was a ...
opted to sever provincial funding for the company entirely upon being elected in 1999. Sydney Steel Corporation's board of directors was disbanded on 25 January 2001. The liquidation of the corporation began soon after. In July 2001, it was announced that SYSCO's mini mill was being sold to an
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n company named
Zoom Developers Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for ima ...
who planned to dismantle it and ship it overseas. Despite worker protests, SYSCO's steel production was shut down that year and the workers have been helping to dismantle the entire facility for site remediation.


Environmental legacy

Until the mid-1980s, SYSCO along with its predecessors,
Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of onl ...
, DOSCO, BESCO, and DOMCO/DISCO, was a user of coke as a fuel for the mill's blast furnaces. Coke is produced by slowly baking coal, evaporating or leaching out various liquids in the process. The coke ovens used in Sydney were located across Victoria Road from the steel mill and since 1967 were operated by the federal Crown corporation DEVCO, which also operated the mines that produced the coal supply. The associated run-off from these coke ovens over a period of 85 years ended up in the Muggah Creek tidal estuary downhill from the coke ovens and adjacent to the steel mill, creating the
Sydney Tar Ponds The Sydney Tar Ponds were a hazardous waste site on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. Located on the eastern shore of Sydney Harbour in the former city of Sydney (now amalgamated into the Cape Breton Regional Municipality), the Tar Ponds ...
. Site remediation was carried out by
Nova Scotia Lands Incorporated A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramat ...
and
Harbourside Commercial Park Inc. Harborside or Harbourside may refer to: * Harborside, Maine * Harborside (Jersey City), buildings in New Jersey, United States ** Harborside (HBLR station) * Harborside station (San Diego Trolley) * Harbourside monorail station, Sydney, Australia * ...
, a Crown corporation formed to redevelop the site as a commercial and industrial estate. The cleanup was completed in 2013 with the opening of Harbourside Commercial Park and Open Hearth Park, which are situated on the site of the former Sydney Steel Corporation. Open Hearth Park features a playground and soccer field, and has hosted events such as a concert by international recording stars
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in September 2014. In 2006, Carole Lee Boutilier, founder of th
Sydney Steel Plant Museum
contributed a sample of steel rail to the
Six String Nation Six String Nation is public art and history project conceived by Jowi Taylor and centred around a steel-string acoustic guitar built from a variety of artifacts collected by Taylor representing diverse cultures, communities, characters and eve ...
project. Part of that material was inlaid as a fret marker into the 17th fret of ''Voyageur'', the guitar at the heart of the project.


References

{{Authority control Ironworks and steel mills in Canada Steel companies of Canada Companies based in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Crown corporations of Nova Scotia Manufacturing companies established in 1967 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2001 1967 establishments in Nova Scotia 2001 disestablishments in Nova Scotia