Canada Gives Stellantis 30 Days to Repay Aid After Brampton Plant Sale

Canada’s federal government has given Stellantis 30 days to live up to its earlier promises or face a lawsuit to recover federal money, after the automaker sold its Brampton, Ontario, assembly plant to defense contractor Roshel. The price of the sale was not disclosed.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said the company owes “hundreds of millions of dollars” and that Ottawa has sent Stellantis a notice of default. Stellantis has offered to pay back only the $24 million CAD it received for the original Brampton retooling plan.

What Ottawa says Stellantis promised

The federal funding was committed in 2022 to retool the Brampton and Windsor assembly plants. Reports differ on how the amount converts: WardsAuto puts it at CA$529 million ($374 million), while a report on Yahoo Finance gives it as $380 million ($529 million Canadian). According to WardsAuto, the money came with a condition that Stellantis keep production going at both plants through 2036 and keep an average of 4,475 employees.

Joly told reporters after a Nov. 12 meeting in Toronto with Stellantis, the union Unifor and Ontario Premier Doug Ford that the automaker had broken its contract with Canada and with Brampton workers. She said she had written to Stellantis Canada CEO Trevor Longley to close out the resolution process. If the money is not returned within 30 days, she said, the government will sue. Joly also said she expects to meet Stellantis global CEO Antonio Filosa about the plant’s future.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said separately that Stellantis has an obligation to provide a “global solution” for the plant’s workers.

How the Jeep Compass left Brampton

The Brampton plant employs about 3,000 people but has sat idle since 2023, when it began retooling to build the Jeep Compass. Production was supposed to start in 2026. Stellantis stopped that work after announcing in October 2025 that it would build the Compass in the United States to avoid tariffs (see our list of US auto plants and what they build). Unifor said the sale made Brampton the first auto plant lost to the U.S.-Canada trade war.

What Stellantis says

In a written statement, Longley said the company understands the disappointment and uncertainty over the facility. He argued the sale gives the plant a way back to industrial use and will create new jobs. Roshel has said it would take on the Brampton workforce. Joly, however, has warned that about 2,000 jobs could be lost under the new owner.

Longley said Stellantis wants to reach a fair, negotiated settlement with Unifor for affected employees that recognizes their years of service. He did not commit to returning all of the federal funding, which was meant to be spread across several Stellantis plants in Canada.

Why it matters for workers and the industry

For Brampton workers, the outcome decides whether federal pressure brings any settlement beyond what Roshel offers. If Ottawa sues, it would be seeking to recover aid from an automaker that moved a model to the United States. Joly contrasted Stellantis with other automakers, pointing to Honda Canada’s planned CA$166 million retooling of its Alliston, Ontario, plant.

Unifor national president Lana Payne said the talks ended without a resolution and that little had changed because the plant is already sold. She said the federal and Ontario governments could reverse the process, but she saw no sign at the meeting that they would. Payne cited the 2021 restart of General Motors’ Oshawa Assembly plant after a two-year shutdown as an example of a plant coming back. She said the union never asked for a new product, only that Stellantis not sell or close Brampton.

What happens next

Stellantis now has 30 days to answer the notice of default. A further meeting between Joly and Filosa is expected, and Unifor’s bargaining with the company over Brampton employees is still going on.

Sources: Yahoo, Yahoo Finance