Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talked to steelworkers Tuesday morning and squeezed in a visit to infamously vandalized Donut Monster before sitting down for roundtable talks with local steel industry stakeholders.

The Liberal PM, in Hamilton as part of a cross-country tour of aluminum and steel factories, also told the Ontario city hard-hit by the national opioid crisis that situations like theirs were a top priority for his government .

Trudeau told Stelco workers Tuesday morning the government “has their back” in the face of steel tariff threats from the U.S. government.

Local steelworkers union leader Gary Howe said the prime minister took questions from employees during a morning tour.

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He said the “main” question union members wanted answered was whether the government will overhaul the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), the legislative rules through which U.S. Steel Canada entered into bankruptcy protection and was ultimately sold and reborn as Stelco.

Frustrated local steelworkers have called the CCAA “legalized theft” and lobbied to enshrine more rights for workers during bankruptcy protection. “We want to know if the law will be changed,” Howe said, noting the NDP have pitched proposed legislative changes.

Howe said Trudeau did not commit to specific changes, but agreed “there needs to be a conversation.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the city of Hamilton he is committed to doing more to address the ongoing opioid crisis. The Ontario city says its opioid-death rate last year was 78 per cent higher than the provincial average. (The Canadian Press)

Trudeau then dropped by Donut Monster to sign the increasingly crowded pieces of plywood erected after a masked mob of presumed anarchists marched down Locke Street lobbing rocks and smashing windows.

The PM grabbed a quick bite of a chai doughnut, chatted with owners Heidi and Reuben Vanderkwaak and stopped for requisite selfie photos before heading to a steel industry sit-down meeting.

On the opioid crisis, Trudeau said the government is taking action to try and curb a deadly trend that saw 70 opioid-related deaths in Hamilton between January and October last year, with an additional five deaths classified as “probable” opioid-related fatalities, according to new figures. That compared to 41 confirmed opioid-related deaths for the same period in 2016.

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The city said its opioid-death rate for last year’s period was 78 per cent higher than the provincial rate. In 2016, it said its rate was 48 per cent higher than Ontario’s.

“We know that we have to address this. This is getting to be more and more of a problem,” Trudeau said after a tour of a steel plant. “We have always put this at the top of our preoccupations as we deal with this public health crisis here in Hamilton and right across the country.”

With files from The Canadian Press

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