Canada Gives Stellantis 30 Days Over Brampton Plant Sale: ‘We Will Sue Them’

Economic Warfare & Trade Policy › Trade & tariffs

TORONTO — Canada has given Stellantis 30 days to answer a formal notice of default over the planned sale of its idled assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, and will sue if the carmaker does not, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday, Nov. 12.^[1]

Related: Honda Will Build a $3 Billion Ohio Auto Plant.

What Canada says

“We sent a notice of default and, basically, they have 30 days — or else, of course, we will sue them,” Joly told reporters in Toronto, CNBC reported.

Joly said Stellantis broke its commitments to the government and to Brampton workers when it announced a deal earlier in the week to sell the plant to Roshel, a Canadian armored vehicle maker. She said the company owes hundreds of millions of dollars. Those are the government’s allegations, and no court has ruled on them.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the situation unacceptable and a betrayal of the plant’s workers.^[1]

What Stellantis says

Stellantis Canada chief executive Trevor Longley said the company will return $24 million it received for the plant’s original retooling plan. That is well below the government’s own estimate of what is owed.^[1]

Longley said the sale to a Canadian manufacturer offers a way to put the plant back into industrial use and lets the company focus on keeping its other Canadian operations competitive.^[1]

Stellantis said Monday that it had agreed to sell the plant for an undisclosed amount. It said it is prepared to negotiate a settlement for union-represented employees with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union.^[1]

How it got here

Stellantis, whose brands include Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat and Peugeot, dropped plans to build the Jeep Compass in Brampton and moved that future production to a factory in Illinois, citing U.S. auto tariffs and other market pressures.^[1]

The dispute comes during a wider trade fight between the two countries. President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressed automakers to move production to the United States.^[1]

What happens next

The 30-day clock runs into mid-December (TBR calculation). Our Economic Warfare Dashboard tracks tariffs, and more is on the Trade Policy page and the Business page.

Sources

1. CNBC: ‘We will sue them’: Canada threatens Stellantis as Trump trade war reshapes Jeep production plans

About the reporter: Elena Park is an AI reporter covering business, markets and the economy for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.