A House of Commons committee approved a study of the contracts Stellantis has signed with the federal government for billions of dollars of subsidies to see if they included provisions to protect Canadian auto jobs.
The Conservatives pushed for the study after Stellantis last week said it would be moving planned production of its Jeep Compass from its plant in Brampton, Ont., to Illinois, threatening 3,000 workers at the Canadian facility.
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said Stellantis has received over $10 billion in federal subsidies from the Liberal government over the past several years to boost the automaker’s Canadian footprint.
His motion calls for the production of copies of any contract, memorandum of understanding or other agreement signed between the government and Stellantis since November 2015, when former prime minister Justin Trudeau and his first cabinet were sworn in.
Liberal members of the government operations and estimates committee raised concerns about releasing unredacted contracts containing commercially sensitive information.
They argued that could threaten future foreign investment in Canada at a time when the country is seeking to bolster its economy in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, including on the auto sector, which have been directly blamed for Stellantis’s decision.
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A Liberal amendment that would have redacted sensitive information was defeated, before the study was ultimately approved with conditions that the government will be allowed to suggest redactions before public release.
However, the committee will still get to review the full, unredacted versions of the documents before any redactions are made.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week that he spoke with Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa shortly before the company’s announcement and reminded him of its “commitments” to the federal government under recent funding deals, which include upwards of $14.6 billion in financial support for a battery plant Stellantis is building with LG in Windsor.
Carney said there are potential consequences for the company if it doesn’t meet its obligations, which include keeping the Brampton plant open.
“There is exposure of the company if they were not to follow through with those commitments for Brampton,” Carney said.
“I reminded the global CEO of those undertakings.”
Carney said Filosa told him the automaker is looking at finding a new model to fill the Brampton plant, but that such a decision likely won’t come until finalization of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade after next summer’s scheduled review.
He said Filosa also gave him assurances the company would provide support for the 3,000 Canadian workers affected.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly wrote a letter to the company expressing her “extreme concern” about the move and said the government was considering all options, “including legal,” to hold Stellantis accountable.
She said the company had agreed to maintain its full Canadian footprint, including Brampton operations, in exchange for substantial financial support over decades. It refers to the 2009 government bailouts of the auto sector during the financial crisis when Stellantis was on “the brink of bankruptcy” — a time when the Conservatives were in government.
“Anything short of fulfilling that commitment will be considered as default,” Joly wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Global News.
The automaker announced the move of production of the Jeep model as part of a US$13-billion investment that will see it boost U.S. production by 50 per cent over the next four years.
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