The Stellantis vehicle assembly plant in Brampton, Ont., on Wednesday. Stellantis has announced plans to move production of its Jeep Compass to Illinois.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail
The biggest surprise about Stellantis’s STLA-N decision to move production of its Jeep Compass model to Illinois from Brampton and put 3,000 Canadian jobs in limbo is not that it happened but the level of shock among Canadian leaders that it did.
From Ottawa to Queen’s Park to the mayor’s chambers in Brampton, the gasps of apparent disbelief, hurt and betrayal were breathtakingly naive.
A lawsuit against Stellantis threatened by Industry Minister Melanie Joly just hours after the company’s announcement suggests that everyone who should have been paying attention was caught flat-footed and is now in full crisis mode.
In the current trade environment, no one should be surprised. Everything is in play at all times. This is exactly what U.S. President Donald Trump’s America First tariff strategy was designed to do – drive manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
Ottawa threatens to sue Stellantis over move to shift Jeep production to U.S.
And it’s working, for the U.S., anyway. Canada has lost thousands of jobs since Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on a wide waterfront of products in the spring.
The biggest questions are these: What, if anything, was done at any level to pre-empt this and what can be done to avoid it happening again?
Surely, considering the strained Canada-U.S. trade relations, especially around the auto industry, someone close to the situation should have seen this coming.
In response to the Stellantis announcement, Prime Minister Mark Carney succeeded only in stating the obvious by saying that because of tariffs the auto industry would continue to be at risk in the current trade environment.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province had provided no incentives to Stellantis and would not extend any support until its Brampton strategy was clear. Despite that lack of commitment from the province, he suggested the company had a duty to make good on its promises to autoworkers.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said he was “deeply disappointed,” and that the move was a step backward from the company’s commitment to the community and its workers.
High-level trade talks between Canada and U.S. resume as united front among provinces unravels
For its part, Stellantis said it still has plans for Brampton, but it did not comment on any details. News of the lawsuit may change those – what company wants to invest in a hostile environment?
The signs seemed to be pretty clear earlier this year that there was trouble ahead. The Brampton plant has been idle since 2023, and work on retooling for new vehicles stopped in February, after the introduction of 25-per-cent tariffs on imported automobiles. The factory had been slated to produce the Jeep Compass when it reopened, and more than 3,000 unionized Stellantis employees remain on layoff.
But the after-the-fact, culturally appropriate cluck-clucking of leaders, and expectations that this whole trade battle with the U.S. should be fought under Marquis of Queensbury rules or in court is the best way to ensure that this type of thing will happen again and again.
Canadian leaders need to get busy and take action to protect and incentivize other at-risk operations of multinational companies in Canada and not just in the auto business.
If they don’t already have one, they need a strategy to pre-empt this sort of thing and take steps to put Canada and Canadian jobs first.
They can start by looking at Ford Motor’s Oakville, Ont., assembly plant. The planned retooling for heavy duty truck production there could face the same fate as the Brampton plant if they don’t get aggressive with incentives.
Ford Motor Co. proceeding with retooling in Oakville despite tariff threat
The Oakville plant has already been whipsawed by macro factors over the past couple of years. Two years ago, Ford announced plans for a US$1.8-billion retooling at the factory to produce electric vehicles, a move that would create thousands of jobs.
Ottawa and Ontario pledged $590-million in 2020 to support the EV conversion. The autoworkers’ union, Unifor, applauded the move.
But tepid customers response to Ford’s EV models amid worldwide softening of EV sales prompted the company to shelve the plans.
Instead, it announced plans to invest US$2.3-billion to retool the plant yet again, this time to build heavy duty trucks in its F-series line, the best-selling models in the North American market, beginning in 2026. The pivot is expected to create 1,800 jobs.
If anyone expects Ford to put its best-selling and most profitable models at risk by building them on the wrong side of Mr. Trump’s tariffs on foreign-made products, well, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.
As odious as it may sound to some, Canadian leadership needs to think like Mr. Trump. Be aggressive. Be ruthless. This is a guy who lives by Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. After all, he cribbed the title of his own 1987 book, Trump: The Art of the Deal.
And while they’re at it, Canadian leaders should heed baseball legend Leo Durocher’s warning that nice guys finish last. Because whether it’s the art of war or the art of the deal, in Mr. Trump’s world, there are winners and there are losers.
Until Canada’s decision-makers take steps to be winners and not just nice guys, the danger of having more Stellantis-like exits will remain high.