Nov 11, 2026
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney called the sale of Stellantis’ idled Brampton, Ontario, assembly plant “unacceptable” and a betrayal of workers and of Canadians.
One day later, a very different picture emerged. Sources say Ottawa wasn’t watching from the sidelines and had, in fact, been at the table for months.
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Unifor had been pressing Ottawa on its role before the reporting surfaced. “The reality is, we’re not done fighting here,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said Tuesday, adding that the union wants to know whether Ottawa signed off on the sale. The dispute now goes beyond just one plant. It’s about how much leverage Canada really has over automakers that take public money, and whether that leverage was used.
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What did Ottawa know about the Stellantis sale?
Three separate sources told CTV News that the federal government took an active, intensive role in the discussions that led to the plant’s sale to Roshel, a Canadian armoured vehicle maker, and didn’t block the deal. Two of the sources said the federal government met with the companies more than a dozen times over several months. One said Ottawa initially opposed the sale.
The federal government denies that it backed the deal. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly’s office said it couldn’t discuss confidential talks, and her spokesperson said “the government of Canada never advocated for a deal between Roshel and Stellantis.”
The reporting lands in the immediate wake of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s public criticism. He said the sale was “unacceptable” and a “betrayal of workers,” and Joly promised to use the full force of the law to protect jobs.
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How much public money is tied to the Brampton plant?
In 2022, the federal government committed up to $529 million to help Stellantis retool its Brampton and Windsor, Ont., plants. Records show $222 million had been paid out as of March 2025, but with no breakdown by plant.
Stellantis says it has offered to return the federal support tied to Brampton’s original retooling plan. The company didn’t say how much that is, but three sources put it at $24 million.
Prime Minister Carney has argued that the sale breaches commitments Stellantis made to Ottawa in exchange for taxpayer financing, as well as its obligations to Canadian employees.
What happens to the plant and its workers?
The plant has sat idle since 2023, when it was shut down to retool for a new electric vehicle. That production was later moved to the U.S., and more than 2,200 workers have been laid off.
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Roshel has said it will retool the plant for auto and defence manufacturing and will prioritize rehiring workers from Stellantis, but it hasn’t said how many people it will hire. When asked directly, however, Roshel CEO Roman Shimonov told CP24 he would not commit to rehiring the affected workers.
Stellantis, for its part, says it recognizes its obligations to employees under collective agreements and the law, and is prepared to negotiate a settlement with Unifor.
What happens next?
The financial terms of the sale haven’t been released, and contract talks between Stellantis and Unifor, which represents more than 9,000 of the company’s Canadian workers, remain at an impasse. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.
In the meantime, Carney said officials have set up a meeting between government, Stellantis executives and Unifor leaders to discuss next steps for their affected employees.
For Unifor, the concern goes well beyond Brampton. As James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, warned, if Stellantis can walk away from Brampton, “there are no guarantees for the rest of its production in Canada.”
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
