Carney aware of ‘some aspects’ of Stellantis auto plant sale, but says
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he had been informed of “some aspects” of Stellantis’s plan to sell an idled Brampton, Ont., auto plant to Canadian armoured vehicle maker Roshel Inc. before the deal was announced earlier this week.
“Being informed or being aware of some aspects is not the same as Stellantis providing a global solution for those workers at the plant, which is their obligation,” Carney said while at a European Political Community meeting in Dublin, Ireland, on Thursday.
More than 2,000 workers at Stellantis’s Brampton plant have been out of work since the company halted operations in 2023 to retool the facility to produce the Jeep Compass.
Stellantis and Roshel signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the potential sale in September. The prime minister did not reveal Thursday how long he was aware of the deal or what aspects he was aware of.
Carney said that while selling the plant is a “partial solution” for some of the workers who lost their jobs, it leaves others out in the cold.
“We will pursue all of this. A partial solution is a step, it is not a global solution. That is a betrayal,” he said.
The prime minister made the comments a day after media reports said his office and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly’s office had been aware of the deal for months.
On Wednesday, A source with direct knowledge of the sale told CBC News the federal government had been engaged regularly on the deal since August.
The source said both the Prime Minister’s Office and Joly’s office had been briefed on the details of what was going to be announced. CTV News first reported the government’s involvement in the talks.
A spokesperson for Joly told CBC News on Wednesday that she “had no part in negotiating the deal with Stellantis or Roshel” and didn’t meet with Roshel.
‘Unacceptable,’ says Carney
When Stellantis announced the sale earlier this week, Carney called the situation with the Brampton plant “unacceptable.”
“It violates the obligations that Stellantis has under several agreements, but to be more fundamental, it’s a betrayal of the workers, as it is a betrayal of the obligations to Canada and by extension to all Canadians.”
Carney explained Thursday that Stellantis has an obligation to “all of the workers” at the plant.
“That’s the responsibility of Stellantis, that’s the responsibility they made multiple times, including in the battery deal that they signed with the government,” he said.
Speaking in Calgary on Thursday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Carney out for saying he was “shocked” by the “betrayal” of the Stellantis plant sale when, days later, “we learned that he was in on the deal.”
“They were involved in it,” Poilievre said, citing media reports by CBC News and CTV. “So one day Carney says it was a betrayal, the other day we find out he was involved. So, was it his betrayal?”
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