Canada Declares Stellantis in Default Over Brampton Plant Funding, Automaker to Repay Federal Aid
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has notified Stellantis that it is in default of a 2022 federal funding agreement for the Brampton auto plant, giving the automaker 30 days to meet the terms or repay taxpayer aid. The notice follows Stellantis's finalized sale of the facility to armoured vehicle manufacturer Roshel Inc. and its decision to shift Jeep Compass production to Illinois. Stellantis stated it will voluntarily repay the funds received.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has officially notified automaker Stellantis NV that she considers the company in default of a 2022 federal funding agreement intended to retool the Brampton, Ontario, auto plant. In a letter dated Thursday and addressed to Trevor Longley, CEO of the carmaker’s Canadian division, Joly gave Stellantis 30 days to meet the terms of the agreement—including naming a car to be built at the plant—before requiring repayment of taxpayer aid.
Under the 2022 agreement, the government provided as much as $529 million to Stellantis for work on plants in Brampton and Windsor, Ont., according to a heavily redacted copy of the contract. It remains unclear how much of that total was actually paid to the automaker. Stellantis idled the Brampton plant in 2023, laying off approximately 3,000 workers, with the initial intent to retool the facility for the Jeep Compass. However, retooling work was halted after the United States placed a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian-made cars in early 2025. In late 2025, Stellantis announced the Jeep Compass would not be built in Brampton but instead at an idled plant in Belvidere, Ill.
In her letter, Joly stated she is ending the agreement’s resolution process, during which the government and the company had been meeting to find other cars for the plant. She also asserted that she never indicated support for a sale of the facility to Roshel Inc., nor did she state that such a sale would cure Stellantis’s existing breaches of the agreement.
In September, Stellantis announced it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell the Brampton factory to Roshel, a maker of armoured vehicles. The two companies finalized the sale on Monday for an undisclosed amount. Stellantis and Roshel said the transaction clears a path to the return of manufacturing at the plant in automotive and/or defence production, and the companies have set up a partnership to explore defence industry collaboration. The Globe and Mail reported that Stellantis will lease back about one-quarter of the plant.
Following the default notice, Stellantis said this week it will voluntarily repay the money received from the federal funding agreement.