Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says the city may have other options for its vacant Stellantis assembly plant, but he still wants the automaker to return and honour its commitment to the workers who have been waiting for production to resume.

Brown made the comments during a television interview as negotiations between Stellantis and Unifor got underway this week.

The Brampton Assembly Plant has been idle since late 2023, when it was taken offline for retooling. Stellantis had planned to restart production with the Jeep Compass, but that plan was eventually scrapped, with production moved to Illinois.

More than 3,000 workers were affected by the loss of production, along with thousands of additional jobs connected to the broader automotive supply chain.

Brown said his priority remains seeing Stellantis return to the facility.

“I want to see a commitment to this Brampton Assembly plant. I want Stellantis to honour their obligations,” Brown told CP24.

He pointed to a binding agreement between Stellantis and the federal government that included commitments to production in both Brampton and Windsor.

“They need to come back with the jobs that they had there before, the 3,000 jobs,” Brown said.

That position is notable because Brown has also spent the past week talking publicly about the growing interest in the massive industrial property.

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He has previously identified potential interest from automotive companies, defence manufacturers and other businesses, including a Brampton-based defence company and companies from China and Italy.

But Brown said those alternatives should not be viewed as an acceptable replacement for Stellantis — at least not yet.

One potential automotive suitor he mentioned, he said, would mean only a few hundred jobs.

“If they want to take bargaining in good faith, I think the starting point is instead of playing diversion tactics and blame games about why they can’t build cars in Canada, I want to see what their plan is when the product’s going to be back,” Brown said.

There is also a question about how much power Brampton itself has if Stellantis decides to sell the property.

Earlier this year, Brampton council changed its planning rules to protect the site for automotive assembly and related manufacturing uses. The move was intended to prevent the property from being converted to an unrelated use and protect automotive jobs.

Brown acknowledged, however, that the city’s legal options are relatively limited.

“The government of Canada was the one that signed the contract with Stellantis for production incentives,” he said on CP24. “And they have legal recourse.”

That could put much of the pressure on the federal government to pursue Stellantis if the automaker does not live up to its commitments.

Brown said federal officials, including federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, are working with Unifor and Stellantis on the issue.

For now, the mayor said he remains hopeful the company will “do the right thing” and bring a new product back to Brampton.

If that ultimately does not happen, Brown said the city will have to pivot.

His preference then would be for a Canadian-owned company producing Canadian-made products, with defence manufacturing among the possibilities.

But for now, despite the growing list of companies reportedly interested in the plant, Brown’s message remains clear: Brampton would rather see Stellantis return and bring the jobs with it.


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