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The federal and Ontario governments are mounting a last-ditch effort to save the Stellantis auto plant in Brampton by pitching the company possible survival “scenarios” and offering an “aggressive package” of support to make it happen.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly revealed the plan in Woodbridge, Ont., at an announcement about retooling a Honda plant in Alliston.
“We’ve put an aggressive package to Stellantis to prevent the sale. And we are still in solution mode to prevent the sale,” Joly said in response to a reporter’s question about the future of the Brampton plant.
Joly said the next move is for her, Unifor — the union representing workers at the plant — and Ontario Minister of Economic Development Vic Fedeli to meet with Stellantis global CEO Antonio Filosa to pitch the plan.
Fedeli said Unifor has come up with more than one scenario for how the sale can be stopped and the plant “kept warm” until new Stellantis product lines can return.
“They have brought forward some suggestions. These are men and women who have built products at Stellantis’s Brampton plant for decades. They know exactly what needs to happen in that plant,” Fedeli said.
Three industry sources told CBC News they were surprised to hear Joly and Fedeli say there’s an “aggressive package” on the table for Stellantis.
The sources said that Stellantis has had intense talks with the government over the past year, and has been clear what it needed to keep the plant open.
A statement from Joly’s office said that in its conversations with Stellantis and the union it “presented various options to the company to get the workers back on the job,” including “various incentives and plans for restructuring.”
The statement said “further options” will be presented in a meeting with Filosa.
$2.5B auto support package
In October, the federal and Ontario governments announced an $8.7-billion support package for steel, critical mineral and auto sectors, with $2.5 billion earmarked for the auto sector over two years.
Fedeli said the financial support for Unifor’s suggested “scenarios” will be paid for out of that fund.
“Not all of it, of course, but part of it is available for this solution,” Fedeli said.
In 2022, the Trudeau government promised to inject up to $529 million in Stellantis plants in Brampton and Windsor, Ont., to help them increase production of electric and gas-powered vehicles.
More than 2,000 workers at Stellantis’s Brampton plant have been out of work since the company halted operations in 2023 to begin that retooling process so the facility could produce the Jeep Compass.
But Stellantis paused the retooling effort in early 2025, announcing in October of that year that the Jeep Compass would be built at the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois instead.
WATCH | Joly says feds have ‘levers’ for Stellantis case:
Joly says feds have ‘levers’ around Stellantis plant sale — but not what they are
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Friday that Ottawa has ‘levers’ to pull with Stellantis because of financial support the government provided to support key facilities. The Liberal government wants to keep the Brampton, Ont., assembly plant and jobs tied to it, Joly said, but did not offer specifics around what is being offered or how they plan to proceed.
The plant’s future in Brampton had been left in limbo until Monday, when Stellantis announced it was selling the facility to Canadian armoured vehicle maker Roshel Inc.
In a statement issued Friday, Roshel said it wants to build a “centre of excellence for advanced automotive and defence manufacturing” at the plant that will have the “potential to create over 2,000 jobs as production ramps up.”
The company said laid-off workers will receive first priority consideration when it begins hiring in phases.
Last December, CBC News confirmed that the federal government had given $222 million to the Canadian arm of Stellantis between 2023 and 2025. CBC News asked the federal government for the most recent total but has yet to receive a response.
But in a statement on Thursday, Stellantis Canada CEO Trevor Longley said the company will only return subsidies to the government to the tune of $24 million.
“Documents are clear, contracts also are clear. The Brampton facility of Stellantis is linked to the Windsor plant and also the battery investments. That’s why I’ve said and I continue to say Stellantis is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars,” Joly said.
President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association Flavio Volpe says that according to Stellantis’s product plan, it still has four vehicles for the 2029 model year that have not been assigned to a plant.
“Let’s stop the sale, keep the plant warm and then work on landing those products here,” Volpe told CBC News.