{"id":249972,"date":"2025-10-30T11:29:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/249972\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T11:29:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:29:17","slug":"stellantis-exec-stresses-commitment-to-canada-amid-grilling-from-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/249972\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellantis exec stresses commitment to Canada amid grilling from MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Stellantis<\/a> told MPs Wednesday the automaker is committed to maintaining production in Canada and supporting Canadian autoworkers, but that expanding investment will require more trade \u201ccertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stellantis president Jeff Hines told the House of Commons industry committee the decision to move planned production from Brampton, Ont., to the U.S. announced this month was \u201cnot taken lightly,\u201d but acknowledged U.S. tariffs had upended its business strategy.<\/p>\n

He said laid-off Brampton workers are getting priority placement at Stellantis\u2019 new battery production plant in Windsor \u2014 a project supported by nearly $15 billion in federal subsidies \u2014 and transfer opportunities to other Stellantis plants \u201cwherever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers will also see extended benefits as the company works on providing them a \u201clong-term, sustainable operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hines added Stellantis is committed to bringing a new product to Brampton to replace the Jeep Compass, but added a long-term solution to tariffs and Canada-U.S. trade will be necessary.<\/p>\n

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Asked repeatedly by Conservatives if government contracts signed with Stellantis for subsidies included nationwide guarantees to preserve Canadian jobs, Hines wouldn\u2019t directly answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly appreciate all of the support that we\u2019ve gotten from both the provincial and federal government,\u201d he said. \u201cBut certainly, this is also an unusual time over the last nine months especially, certainly more fluid than any of us expected when those contracts were completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tConservatives want to know if Stellantis deal had a jobs guarantee\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Unifor, which represents the Brampton plant workers, has said Stellantis committed to keep production of the Jeep Compass in Canada, something Hines did not dispute.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

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For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n

Asked later in the meeting if she had confidence in Hines\u2019 statements on Stellantis\u2019 commitments to Canada, Unifor national president Lana Payne said no.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just violated a commitment to us,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was not one word of commitment that I heard there in terms of whatever other product that they\u2019re talking about. We already have a product.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Brampton plant, which has been down since early 2024 to prepare for the new production line, had about 3,000 employees before it closed.<\/p>\n

Hines also wouldn\u2019t directly criticize U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff policy, instead reiterating that more a more stable trade environment was necessary.<\/p>\n

He said Stellantis has been in conversations with Ottawa about tariff relief and securing new trade agreements ever since Trump first started imposing tariffs on Canada and the rest of the world early this year.<\/p>\n

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Trump has said his global tariffs on vehicles and auto parts is intended to drive auto manufacturing back to the United States, raising fears about the future of the Canadian industry.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Senate foreign affairs and international trade committee Wednesday, Canada\u2019s Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman said she doesn\u2019t believe the Trump administration is intent on \u201cdestroying\u201d the Canadian auto sector.<\/p>\n

She pointed to comments Trump made alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney in a White House meeting early this month about finding ways for both countries\u2019 industries to succeed and collaborate while also competing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that to be true, and I believe that to be true based on more technical discussions that I have had here in Washington,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am confident that we are going to find some kind of a path.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:13
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow will Stellantis\u2019 U.S. move impact Canada\u2019s auto sector?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Stellantis announced earlier this month it will move production of its Jeep Compass from the Brampton plant to Illinois, as part of a $13-billion investment in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Conservatives this month successfully passed a motion<\/a> at the industry committee for members to see the contracts between Stellantis and the federal government, to see if they included binding \u201cguarantees\u201d for Canadian jobs and production in Brampton in exchange for billions of dollars in federal subsidies.<\/p>\n

Industry Minister Melanie Joly has threatened Stellantis with retaliation, \u201cincluding legal,\u201d and has insisted Conservatives will see the government negotiated \u201cwell\u201d on behalf of auto workers.<\/p>\n

However, she also told MPs in question period last week<\/a> that job protections were contingent on battery production in Windsor, which has yet to begin.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Stellantis\u2019 global CEO Antonio Filosa gave him assurances<\/a> following the U.S. production shift announcement that the automaker is looking at filling the Brampton plant with a new model.<\/p>\n

However, Carney said he was told a decision would require more trade certainty and may have to wait until after next year\u2019s review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade, which is expected to focus in part on the future of the North American auto manufacturing supply chain.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has since reduced<\/a> the number of U.S.-made vehicles Stellantis can import into Canada tariff-free by 50 per cent in response to the Brampton plant shutdown.<\/p>\n

Similarly, General Motors will also see a 24 per cent cut to its tariff quota after announcing it will end electric delivery van production at its plant in Ingersoll, Ont., as planned in November because of low demand.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Stellantis told MPs Wednesday the automaker is committed to maintaining production in Canada and supporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22323,45,49,48,8334,46,714,34215],"class_list":{"0":"post-249972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-auto-industry","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-donald-trump-tariffs","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-stellantis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}