Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is facing scrutiny after her deputy told a Commons committee she never read the full $15-billion Stellantis agreement she has publicly defended, even as the automaker moves toward cuts affecting roughly 3,000 Canadian workers.
Blacklock’s Reporter said Deputy Industry Minister Philip Jennings testified at the Commons government operations committee that Joly had no need to review the complete contract, describing her as new to the file and not part of negotiations, and adding that she is briefed only on select elements.
Jennings also said he has never seen an unredacted version of the Stellantis documentation and that only about 10 federal employees have read the full deal, a concentration of access that opposition MPs argued is incompatible with Parliament’s ability to evaluate obligations tied to multibillion-dollar public funds.
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The committee dispute centers on hidden provisions, including what job guarantees, if any, were tied to the subsidy package and whether terms allow Ottawa to impose remedies when production or investment shifts outside Canada.
Jennings told MPs that the department refused to disclose all confidential clauses despite a committee order, citing commercial secrecy and warning that compelled disclosure could damage trust with corporate partners and impair future subsidy negotiations.
“Marker in hand”
Under questioning, Jennings said redactions were shaped through direct talks with Stellantis, and he indicated the company ultimately decided what would be shared.
Conservative MP Jeremy Patzer challenged the department for not complying with Parliament’s order, pressing on who “had the marker in hand” during redaction, while Bloc MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau argued corporate interests cannot outrank taxpayers, asking who is “the boss,” the government or the company.
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The testimony also creates a direct tension with Joly’s earlier public posture on the file, including her prior statement to MPs that she understood the Stellantis agreement and urging critics to “just look at the contracts,” even as Jennings described a ministerial workflow based on partial briefings rather than full-text review.
That tension matters because Joly has positioned Ottawa’s leverage as legal and contractual, including an October warning that Ottawa would “exercise all options, including legal,” if Stellantis fails to maintain its “full Canadian footprint” after the company shifted a Jeep Compass program from Brampton to Belvidere, Illinois, leaving about 3,000 Brampton workers affected.
READ: Joly Threatens Stellantis Suit Over US Shift After Billions In Subsidy Fails To Bind
In the same period, Ottawa’s subsidy exposure has been framed at multiple levels in the record provided: Stellantis’ 2022 commitment of $3.6 billion to retool Brampton and Windsor for EV and battery programs backed by $1.4 billion from Ottawa and Ontario for a $5 billion total, and separate references to up to $15 billion allocated for the Stellantis–LG NextStar battery plant pathway.
The committee standoff lands amid broader auto-sector job pressure, including GM’s CAMI decision in Ingersoll eliminating about 1,200 jobs alongside disclosed public funding of $518 million toward GM’s Ontario EV investments.
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