Ottawa, province hope ‘aggressive package’ can prevent Stellantis plant sale: Joly

TORONTO — A day after threatening to sue Stellantis to recoup federal cash given to the automaker, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she’s still hopeful she can prevent the company from selling its Brampton, Ont., assembly plant to Roshel.

Joly said Ottawa is “still in solution mode to prevent the sale,” which includes working with the Ontario government and the union representing more than 9,000 Stellantis workers in Canada.

The federal and provincial governments plan to meet with the company’s global CEO Antonio Filosa after Thursday’s sit-down with Stellantis Canada CEO Trevor Longley.

“We’ve put an aggressive package to Stellantis to prevent the sale,” Joly said Friday morning.

“What came out of the meeting yesterday is that we would be presenting new scenarios to the global CEO of Stellantis.”

The minister made those comments during an announcement Friday in Vaughan, Ont., alongside Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli. The pair were announcing support for the auto sector at the headquarters of automotive supplier Martinrea International Inc.

Fedeli said there are supports available to Stellantis if it can “buy some time” rather than moving forward with the sale to the defence contractor. The deal with Roshel, announced Monday, is expected to close before the end of this year.

“When you sell an auto plant, it’s gone. It’s not going to come back,” Fedeli said.

“We don’t want them to sell the auto plant, we want them to honour their commitment to the employees and work with us. We have new funds that we can help keep a warm plant until we look for something that we can put in there.”

The Ontario minister compared the situation to General Motors’ shutdown of vehicle production at its Oshawa, Ont., plant in 2019. At the time, General Motors Canada spent $170 million to transition the facility from manufacturing vehicles to stamping, sub-assembly and autonomous vehicle testing.

GM later decided to retool the plant, and the first Chevrolet Silverado pickup rolled off the line in late 2021.

“Much like General Motors several years ago when they shuttered Oshawa, (Unifor’s) request was, ‘Don’t shutter it, don’t close it, don’t sell it, keep it warm while we look for something.’ And of course, shortly thereafter, we found the Silverado product,” Fedeli said.

“This afternoon, 1,800 men and women are working to make Silverados in Oshawa. That’s the scenario that Unifor wanted at Stellantis in Brampton.”

Unifor national president Lana Payne appeared less optimistic Thursday evening following the four-way meeting with Stellantis and both levels of government.

Payne said that while there are levers that both the federal and provincial governments could use to reverse the sale, the union didn’t hear they would take such action during the meeting.

“The plant has been sold. Why could not something have been done last week or the week before or the week before that to stop this from happening?” she told reporters.

“Now we’re in a completely different situation. We can’t stop the sale. The sale has occurred, so we would have to reverse it, which is doubly difficult, obviously.”

On Thursday, the federal government served Stellantis with a notice of default on its 2022 funding agreement, in which Ottawa committed up to $529 million to help Stellantis retool its Brampton and Windsor facilities to produce electrified vehicles.

A letter from Joly said Stellantis breached conditions of the commitment by halting Jeep Compass production in Brampton, failing or refusing to identify a replacement vehicle, not maintaining any production at the facility, and closing the plant.

Joly’s letter said Stellantis has 30 days to demonstrate it will “correct these conditions” or she will declare that the company is in default of its obligations. It warned that if Stellantis remains in breach of its conditions, the company could face penalties including a requirement to repay all or part of the funding it has received, plus interest.

Joly reiterated Friday that if Stellantis does continue down that road, it would be on the hook for “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

However, Stellantis said Thursday it intends to only repay $24 million in federal government support received for the Brampton facility’s retooling plan.

“Documents are clear, contracts also are clear,” Joly said in response to a question about whether that amount would be satisfactory.

“The Brampton facility of Stellantis is linked to the Windsor plant and also the battery investments and that’s why I said and I continue to say that Stellantis is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.”

While the Ontario government committed $513 million in support for the project at the time, Fedeli said the province has “not advanced any funds to Brampton” to date, so it has no need to recover provincial cash.

A retooling began at the Brampton plant in early 2024, however the automaker paused its plan to produce the Jeep Compass there in February 2025 — one month after U.S. President Donald Trump re-took office and began issuing tariffs on imports from Canada and other countries.

Stellantis later announced it was moving Jeep Compass production to Illinois, leaving more than 2,000 workers laid off and the Brampton plant idled indefinitely.

Roshel CEO Roman Shimonov said in a statement that his company’s plans for the site have the potential to create more than 2,000 jobs as production ramps up, and that laid-off workers would receive first priority consideration as hiring takes place.

“Roshel recognizes that the Brampton assembly plant employees and their families have faced a lot of uncertainty, and our priority is to put this important Canadian manufacturing facility back to work,” Shimonov said.

“The facility’s scale and infrastructure, along with Brampton’s highly skilled workforce, give Roshel a unique opportunity to expand Canadian manufacturing, attract additional automotive and defence-related business, and strengthen domestic industrial capability.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2026.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press