As the federal government comes under increasing fire about whether it gave the green light to Stellantis to sell its idled Brampton assembly plant to defence manufacturer Roshel, Industry Minister Melanie Joly has given the auto maker formal notice that the sale breaks its funding deal with the government.
The notice came in a letter to Stellantis CEO Trevor Longley after the pair met Thursday afternoon to discuss the plant, along with Unifor leaders representing the 2,100 laid-off workers, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“Stellantis provided Action Plans purporting to address Stellantis’ breaches of the Agreement. These Action Plans were premised on Stellantis’ continuing ownership and operation of the Brampton Plant,” Joly said in the letter, which also gave the company 30 days to undo its breaches of the agreement or the government will demand return of any funding. The letter didn’t specify how much money the government would be asking for.
Joly and Prime Minister Mark Carney have faced increasing questions over how much the government knew about the planned sale and whether it approved.
In her letter, Joly said that over the course of her discussions with the company, she never gave that potential sale the green light.
“At no point have I or my office indicated support for a sale to Roshel, nor given any indication that such sale would cure Stellantis’ existing breaches of the agreement. This is a clear breach of the agreement, and you were informed that I viewed any sale as a continuation of the existing breaches,” she wrote.
Her comments came after Carney, on the sidelines of a summit in Ireland on Thursday, sought to draw a distinction between knowing of a potential sale and playing a role in it.
“The issue for Stellantis is providing a global solution for the plant. So the Roshel deal is a partial solution for thousands of workers there. So being informed or being aware of some aspects is not the same as Stellantis providing a solution for those workers at the plant, which is their obligation,” he told reporters.
Speaking from Calgary, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said Carney’s language amounted to a shift from several days earlier when he called the company’s move a “betrayal.”
“Somehow, in a matter of two days, Mark Carney has gone from saying that the sale was an outrageous betrayal to a quote, partial solution.”
“So, which is it Mr. Carney?”
Speaking to the Star earlier this week, Roshel CEO Roman Shimonov expressed openness to hiring the laid off Stellantis workers as it would look to hire within Brampton. However, he said it had not been part of the talks between Stellantis and Unifor, and that “we’re not going to even consider taking any of their obligations on behalf of anyone else.”
The federal government had been given advance notice of the company’s plans, he said.
“We got very positive feedback from the government.”
Records from the federal lobbying registry show Roshel met with senior staff in Joly’s office on two separate occasions this fall, along with a senior aide in Carney’s office and a list of other senior ministerial and department officials.
Mathis Denis, a spokesman for Joly, told the Star on Thursday that Joly’s focus was on working with Stellantis and Unifor to find a solution to the impasse over the Brampton facility, and that she had not spoken with Roshel and was not “involved in the deal.”
Tensions between Stellantis and Ottawa began last year after the company announced it would be shifting production of its Jeep Compass to the U.S., away from the Brampton assembly plant, as initially planned. The plant has sat idle since December 2023.
Both the federal and Ontario government inked deals with Stellantis providing it with financial support as it looked to retool the plant. Joly has spent the past year threatening legal action over that 2022 agreement.
In Thursday’s letter, Joly informed the company she was terminating the resolution process outlined under its agreement, which she had triggered last year. Given its planned sale of the plant, she wrote: “I must conclude that Stellantis is no longer diligently working in good faith to prepare a satisfactory plan under the resolution process.”
Neither Joly’s office or her department have yet stipulated what those amounts would be. A company spokesperson has said Stellantis would voluntarily pay back the federal money provided, but did not provide specific amounts, citing confidentiality.
Shimonov has said he’s buying the 2.95 million square-foot Brampton facility with hopes of producing vehicles for both military and civilian use, and has signed a letter of intent with a “major European automaker,” and attracted interest from other automakers as well.
He wouldn’t say exactly what kind of civilian auto manufacturing would take place, but acknowledged it would be less than the full-scale assembly seen at the Stellantis plant.
Roshel, founded in 2016, already has a 400,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Brampton, and plants in Shelby Township, Mich. and Springfield, Ohio.
It has supplied armoured vehicles to police forces in the U.S. and Canada, and came under criticism in both countries for selling some of its vehicles to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It has also supplied thousands of vehicles to Ukraine.
Roshel is also bidding on a $4.9 billion contract to supply the Canadian military with Light Utility Vehicles.
