first reported by Bloomberg<\/a>, could mean the automaker brings in an operation that relies on much of the manufacturing happening in China, leaving only minor assembly for plants abroad.<\/p>\n\u201cUnifor has very grave concerns about this proposal because it is not manufacturing,\u201d national president Lana Payne said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t use the Canadian supply chain. There are no jobs in auto parts and very few jobs assembling these knock-down kits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stellantis did not confirm any talks with Chinese manufacturers, but said in a statement that it is actively evaluating future programs for Brampton and is in discussions with government officials and key stakeholders.<\/p>\n
The automaker bought a roughly 21 per cent stake in Leapmotor in 2023 and has since formed a partnership to expand production outside of China.<\/p>\n
Stellantis said it remains focused on a strong Canadian footprint with an objective of ensuring any investment decision is sustainable and a long-term commitment that supports workers and suppliers.<\/p>\n
The future of the Brampton plant is unclear after Stellantis announced last year that it was moving production planned for the site to the United States. <\/p>\n
The decision, leaving about 3,000 workers furloughed, came after the U.S. imposed tariffs on auto imports with an aim to bring more production in-country.<\/p>\n
Federal Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly\u2019s office said in a statement that the automaker\u2019s decision to move Jeep Compass production to Illinois was unacceptable and that it\u2019s working with the company, Unifor and the Ontario government to secure production.<\/p>\n
The potential of bringing Leapmotor to Canada comes after the federal government announced it was lowering tariffs on 49,000 Chinese EVs per year to 6.1 per cent from a prohibitive 100 per cent.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney said at the time that he expected the deal would drive \u201cconsiderable\u201d new Chinese joint-venture investment in Canada and create new auto manufacturing careers for Canadian workers. <\/p>\n
Unifor and Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized the deal, saying it would end up being harmful to the Ontario manufacturing base.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prospect of U.S. automaker Stellantis using its Brampton, Ont., facility as a bare bones assembly plant for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[23201,51759,45,49,48,3717,1688,47],"class_list":{"0":"post-579418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brampton","8":"tag-automotive","9":"tag-brampton","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-labour","14":"tag-manufacturing","15":"tag-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579418","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=579418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}