When car manufacturing giant Stellantis announced last year that it would shift production of the Jeep Compaass away from its Brampton plant, thousands of jobs were lost.
Now some of those jobs could be coming back.
Speaking to reporters at the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto yesterday (Feb. 12), Stellantis Canada CEO Trevor Longley reiterated that the shutdown of the Williams Parkway plant was “a pause” and that the company still intends to build cars in Brampton.
He said the company is currently negotiating with the Canadian government and Unifor, the union that represents the workers, to find its way back to the idle Brampton facility.
Stellantis originally planned to build the Compass in Brampton and the plant had been undergoing retooling before it was decided in October to shift operations to Illinois following tariffs placed on Canadian-built vehicles by the U.S., coupled with pressure from President Trump to have car manufacturing centred stateside.
The move cost 3,000 workers in Brampton their jobs and rattled the Canadian economy as politicans at all levels of government wrestled with the future of car manufacturing in this country and the impact that the job loss would have on communities.
Since then the federal government has threatened legal action against Stellantis and has asked for the return of millions of dollars worth of subsidies that were granted to keep the Brampton plant operational.
If work does return to Brampton, Longley has not indicated how many jobs will need to be filled but union leaders say they are optimistic that staffing could come close to previous levels at the plant.
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