Canada PM Carney Calls Stellantis Factory Sale 'Unacceptable'

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the sale by Stellantis of its Toronto-area factory is "unacceptable," adding he's prepared to use whatever legal and policy levers available to protect the roughly 2,000 workers affected.

Stellantis' sale to Canadian armored-vehicle maker Roshel violates the obligations the automaker made to the government in exchange for taxpayer-financing, and to its Canadian employees, Carney said Tuesday at a press conference in Montreal.

"We will fully enforce our rights in protection of those workers and the protection of Canadian funds," he said.

Stellantis said Monday that it concluded the sale of a factory in Brampton, Ontario, to Roshel. Terms of the deal, including the price tag, were not disclosed.

A spokeswoman for Stellantis said Tuesday the company is prepared to pay back both the federal and regional governments for financial support. Federal accounting records suggest officials forwarded more than $220 million Canadian dollars ($155 million) related to the retooling of the carmaker's factories in Brampton and Windsor, Ontario.

"We recognize that Canadians expect accountability for public funding," the spokeswoman said.

The Brampton plant has been idle since 2024 after Stellantis retooled the factory to prepare for the production of its Jeep Compass. Stellantis changed course last year amid hefty U.S. tariffs on foreign vehicles and said the Jeep Compass production would be shifted to a factory in Illinois.

Stellantis said the resumption of auto manufacturing at Brampton was financially unfeasible, and was in talks with Roshel for months about a sale.

Unifor, the union representing Canadian auto workers, condemned the sale of the plant. Unifor President Lana Payne said that allowing the sale to proceed would mark "a critical failure" of the government's industrial strategy, and "breaks Ottawa's promise to protect autoworkers in the U.S. trade war."

Carney said officials have arranged a meeting of government officials, Stellantis executives and Unifor's leadership to discuss next steps to aid affected employees. Roshel previously said it is prepared to bring on some of those workers to its new defense-equipment plant.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2026 12:19 ET (17:19 GMT)