Stellantis in default of funding agreement to retool Brampton plant, Joly notifies automaker

Résumé détaillé

Stellantis idled plant in 2023, laying off about 3,000 workers, and finalized sale to defence contractor Roshel this week

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has officially notified automaker Stellantis NV STLA-N she considers it in default of the federal funding agreement that gave the automaker millions of dollars to retool the Brampton, Ont., auto plant it has sold to a defence contractor.

Ms. Joly gave the carmaker 30 days to meet the terms of the 2022 agreement, including naming a car to be built at the plant, before she will require the automaker to repay the taxpayer aid, in a letter dated Thursday to the chief executive officer of the carmaker’s Canadian division, Trevor Longley.

Stellantis idled the plant in 2023, laying off about 3,000 workers, with the intent of retooling for the Jeep Compass. But that work was halted after the U.S placed a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian-made cars in early 2025. Stellantis, later in 2025, said the Jeep would not be built in Brampton, but at an idled plant in Belvidere, Ill.

In September, the carmaker said it had a preliminary agreement to sell the Brampton factory to Roshel, Inc., a maker of armoured vehicles. The companies said on Monday they finalized the sale for an undisclosed amount.

Details of Stellantis’s funding agreement are not public, but a heavily redacted copy of the contract obtained by The Globe and Mail shows the government gave as much as $529-million to Stellantis for work on plants in Brampton and Windsor, Ont. It is not clear how much was paid.

Stellantis said this week it will voluntarily repay the money received, without elaborating. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ms. Joly said in the letter to Stellantis, a copy of which was provided to The Globe, that she is ending the agreement’s resolution process, in which the government and the company were meeting to find other cars for the plant to assemble.

“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,” Ms. Joly said.

Stellantis…

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