Joly fed up with Stellantis, threatens lawsuit over Brampton plant sale
· Toronto Sun
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OTTAWA — Ottawa is done playing nice.
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Stellantis has been given 30 days to make things right or face a federal lawsuit, after this week’s shocking news that the automaker had sold its idled Brampton assembly plant .
“To be frank, I’m fed up. I’m fed up and workers are fed up and Canadians are fed up,” Industry Minister Melanie Joly told reporters after a 90-minute meeting Thursday with Stellantis, Unifor and Ontario provincial officials.
“This is coming at a time when other automakers are doubling down on Canada, and investing in their plants.”
Joly said the company has 30 days to come up with a solution, or be taken to court.
That federal lawsuit would require the automaker to pay back hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars originally earmarked to protect Canadian production and Canadian jobs.
On Thursday, Joly sent Stellantis Canada CEO Trevor Longley a formal notice of default — ending dispute-resolution processes under the company’s 2022 funding agreement.
The company announced on Monday that it is selling its Brampton plant to Canadian armoured vehicle maker Roshel for an undisclosed sum.
Plant has long history in Brampton
The current plant on Williams Pkwy. was built by the American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1986 as the primary assembly base for their newly introduced Eagle Premier car brand.
That plant served as a sister plant to AMC’s original production facility at Kennedy Rd. and Steeles Ave., which opened in 1961 and, at its 1992 closure, produced Jeep YJs for the North American market.
Following Chrysler’s purchase of AMC, the north Brampton plant served as the production base for numerous front-wheel drive Chrysler cars, including the Concorde, 300M and Dodge Intrepid.
A 2004 retooling saw the plant shifted to produce rear-wheel drive performance cars for Chrysler’s Dodge brand, including the Magnum, Charger and Challenger.
The plant was idled in 2023 to retool for the next-generation Jeep Compass, but uncertainty sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war paused those plans indefinitely.
Jeep Compass production would eventually shift to the United States, leaving the Brampton plant in limbo until Monday’s news of its sale.
Carney calls plant sale a ‘partial solution’
A Stellantis spokesperson said it’s offered to voluntarily repay money it received for the original Brampton retooling plan, but citing confidentiality wouldn’t disclose specific numbers.
Speaking to reporters Thursday in Ireland , Prime Minister Mark Carney called the plant’s sale to Roshel a “partial solution.”
“A partial solution is a step. It is not a global solution. That is the betrayal,” Carney said.
Questions remain about how much the federal government knew about the plant’s sale to Roshel, of which Joly denied any advance knowledge.
Following Thursday’s meeting, Unifor national president Lana Payne — who called the sale of the plant a “worst-case scenario” — said not much had changed.
“Lots of people are to blame for it, including Stellantis, by the way, because they made the decision. I believe Roshel has played a role in this as well,” she said, adding that more meetings are in the works, including with the Ontario government.
Roshel CEO Roman Shimonov said they plan to rehire some of the laid-off Stellantis workers.
They also plan on leasing back a portion of the plant to Stellantis.