OTTAWA — PM Mark Carney has accused Stellantis of betraying Canadian auto workers and threatened to enforce the company's contractual obligations, just hours after Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called for Industry Minister Mélanie Joly to be fired over the sale of the Brampton assembly plant.To reporters in Montreal, Carney said the decision by the automaker to sell the Ontario facility to Canadian defence contractor Roshel was a breach of the agreements with Ottawa."The situation at Stellantis on the Brampton plant is unacceptable," Carney said."It breaches the obligations that Stellantis has under a number of agreements, but more fundamentally it is a betrayal of the workers."Carney said the government would pursue its rights under those agreements to protect workers and public funds."We will fully enforce our rights in respect of those workers and in respect of the Canadian funds," he said..Stellantis confirmed on Monday that it has entered into an agreement to sell its idle Brampton plant to Roshel (which makes armoured vehicles). The purchase price has not been disclosed.The sale comes after the company's decision to move the production of the next-generation Compass from Brampton to Illinois, leaving over 2,000 of the laid-off Canadian auto workers with no clear route back to work.Earlier Tuesday, Poilievre had a press conference in Brampton where he again laid the blame at Joly's door and at the Liberal government for not having stopped the sale."This Liberal industry minister, just like Champagne before her and the entire Liberal government, is costing Canadians money and jobs and driving our economy into the ditch," said Poilievre, via Global News."She's been threatening litigation for years. She's done absolutely nothing."Poilievre asked Carney to sack Joly, citing the government's failure to protect jobs despite the assurances previously given by Stellantis..Carney backed his industry minister, stating the issue was to do with the company's behaviour rather than Joly's performance."The issue isn't the work at all, the outstanding work of the Minister of Industry, Madame Joly and her colleagues. The issue is the behaviour of the company towards those workers."Joly, who was with Carney at the Montreal press conference, said Ottawa had been at the table with Stellantis for over a year, trying to reach an agreement."Patience has its limits," she said."For over a year we've been working with Stellantis, working with Unifor, trying to find a solution for Brampton. Stellantis has now decided to go ahead and breach its contract."Joly said the government would use "the full force of the law" to protect jobs and to seek justice for the workers who had been affected..She also announced a meeting Thursday in Toronto between Stellantis Canada, Unifor and Ontario's minister of economic development.The issue is around Stellantis' obligations to keep the Canadian manufacturing operations in place under the agreements that involved federal funding.The company has accepted its duties to staff under the various collective agreements and applicable legislation, but has not yet publicly conceded that the sale of the Brampton plant is in breach of its government funding agreements as alleged by Ottawa.Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said on Monday that the company is still committed to resolving with Unifor."After three years of paid layoffs, we're still very much in the camp of wanting to work with Unifor on a fair solution," Filosa said.Roshel has stated that the plant could employ some 700 to 1,000 of the Stellantis workers who have been laid off as the operations get going again..Unifor president Lana Payne has denounced the sale as a betrayal of the workers and has warned that Canada is going to lose a significant amount of its automotive manufacturing capacity.The union represents over 9,000 Stellantis workers across Canada. Contract talks are still not resolved, and the members have voted overwhelmingly to authorise a strike should that be necessary.The sale is due to close before the end of the year (subject to regulatory and other conditions).Neither Carney nor Joly specified on Tuesday what legal action Ottawa would take against Stellantis or whether the government intends to block the transaction.
