Unifor’s national president wants the federal government to continue to hold Stellantis to what it calls previous commitments to Canada and its autoworkers.
Lana Payne was responding to Industry Minister Mélanie Joly’s pledge on Monday to a parliamentary committee to try to recoup some of the tax incentives provided to the carmaker.
“I think the minister has done a lot here in the last week or so, and not the least of which has been what has happened around the tariff remission plan,” Payne told CBC News.
“These companies are not going to get to import vehicles without facing a tariff because they’ve broken their commitments to Canadian workers.”
Canada has started a dispute resolution process after Stellantis decided to move jobs around the new Jeep Compass model from its Ontario plant to a factory in Illinois. The 30-day period dates back to Oct. 20, when the government informed Stellantis of the action, according to Joly.
However, Stellantis said Monday the Brampton facility is paused, not closed, and that “no jobs have been lost,” in a statement to CBC News.
Canada will start dispute resolution process over Stellantis jobs lost to U.S.: Joly
Payne said that over and above the dispute resolution process, she wants to see Ottawa utilize any and all levers that can be employed.
“The reality is to keep production in Canada, until we get to a place where potentially we have a new trade agreement with the United States, we’re going to have to play hardball or we’re going to lose production out of the country as we have been.”
The auto sector is one the country cannot afford to lose, she said, including holding companies accountable to their commitments.
“We have to fight for it with everything that we have.”
The Ontario and Canadian governments previously pledged billions in subsidies for Stellantis under contracts. This included a massive deal to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Windsor along with partner LG Energy Solution — and to retool its Windsor and Brampton factories for EV manufacturing.
