Stellantis drew cross-party backlash after officials said the automaker is prioritizing US investment despite prior Canadian federal support for an EV battery project, raising new questions about job security in Ontario and the timing of a Brampton restart.
Conservative MP Raquel Dancho said the federal deal gave Stellantis “up to $15 billion for EV battery production but apparently failed to secure any guarantee to protect Stellantis’s wider manufacturing footprint in Canada.”
“Two years later, taxpayers are bankrolling a company investing billions in US production while Canadian jobs are at risk,” she wrote. “Epic fail, Liberals.”
In July 2023, the federal Liberal government under then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Ontario government under Premier Doug Ford finalized an auto-pact offering performance-based production incentives of up to $15 billion to the Stellantis–LG Energy Solution joint venture, NextStar Energy, for an EV battery cell and module plant in Windsor, Ontario. The package is contingent on batteries produced and sold and the cost-share is two-thirds federal, one-third provincial.
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Ford said he has spoken with Stellantis and Unifor, calling the company’s decision to prioritize US investment “especially painful for those workers who have been out of jobs for months.”
“No provincial funding has flowed to Stellantis for its Brampton project,” Ford emphasized. “Stellantis has a duty to live up to their promise to Brampton autoworkers and continue with their allocation in Brampton.”
Ford pledged that “no provincial funding will be given until we receive clear assurances on when the plant will restart operations.”
The $15 billion is a cap on per-kWh production incentives paid out only as cells are produced and sold. Module production in Windsor began October 2024, and the cell plant is only ramping in late 2025.
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