Canada’s industry minister says Ottawa is considering a lawsuit against Stellantis. That message was contained in a letter to the automaker, sent less than 24 hours after Stellantis announced that it was shifting production of the Jeep Compass from Ontario to an assembly plant in Illinois, creating 3,300 jobs there by 2027.
It’s part of a $13 billion plan by Stellantis to expand production in the U.S. The reaction from north of the border is anger and a feeling of betrayal.
The assembly plant for the Jeep Compass was to open in Brampton, located northwest of Toronto. Now, political leaders say thousands of Canadian jobs will be lost.
Stellantis workers in Brampton are angry and showing it after learning the news by robocalls from the company.
“The government bailed all the auto workers like ten years ago and now they’re taking ‘em and going because Trump. Well, someone’s got to stand up to this guy,” said one unidentified employee. “Never mind the direct jobs, there’s lots of indirect jobs, this cafeteria for example, this restaurant, it will have an impact here.”
Brampton mayor Patrick Brown says the news was like a punch in the stomach. He says the Jeep Compass was set to go into production and now that it’s going to Illinois, it’s devastating to the workers and their families.
“This is a company that in 2009, when they were on their heels amid the global economic slowdown, the government of Canada stepped up and helped them,” Brown said. “In 2022 it was Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Ford that invested in the retooling in Windsor and in Brampton. And given the amount of assistance they’ve had from the Canadian taxpayers, the fact that they would quit and run so quickly based on Donald Trump’s tariff policy is extremely disappointing.”
As for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, there will be no financial aid from his province for the Stellantis Electric vehicle deal in Windsor.
“I’m not going to give them a penny because it was tied in to making sure Windsor and keep Brampton going,” Ford said. “And we haven’t given them a penny for Brampton yet. We gave them about $55 million out of the couple billion that the feds and I and the companies agreed.”
Ford says Stellantis has indicated that it plans to a add a third shift, about 1,500 jobs, to the facility in Windsor, and the auto maker says it has plans for Brampton and intends to share them with Ottawa. But Ford places the blame for the upheaval squarely on Washington.
“It’s the uncertainty that President Trump has not just brought to Canada but to the entire world,” he said. “Protectionism does not work. You see job losses in the U.S., the last five months, there’s been job losses and it’s going to continue.”
In her letter to Stellantis, Industry Minister Melanie Joly reminded the auto maker of its legally binding commitments to Canada and to its workforce there. The threat of legal action was clear.
“The company has commitments under different types of agreements with the government, including the fact that we provided support for the retooling of the very Brampton facility that right now is sitting idle. We will make sure that we push the company and we hold them to account,” Joly said.
Lana Payne is the president of Unifor, the union for auto workers in Canada. She too points to Washington.
“Donald Trump has been very clear from the beginning that he was coming for our auto jobs. And companies now are making decisions to appease Trump in this trade war,” she said. “We have to do everything possible as a country to protect these jobs. And that means right now, Brampton is ground zero.”
Professor Ian Lee, with Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, says this could mark the end of auto manufacturing in Canada.
“We’ve only had a comparative advantage or done well because we had access to the largest market on planet earth called the United States,” Lee said. “The moment we lose access, the game is over because those tariffs are going to make every car exported to the US uneconomic. That means the producers of those cars are going to close down those plants.”
Meanwhile prime minister Mark Carney says he has received assurances that Stellantis does have plans for the Brampton plant. He says he spoke to the auto maker the day before its announcement to move production, adding that they are looking at a different model being produced in Brampton. That decision would be made in the context of a final new North American trade deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
