Stellantis is selling the Brampton Assembly plant to Canadian armoured vehicle manufacturer Roshel, confirmed today after a three-way meeting with federal and Ontario government representatives and Unifor. The company will also return $24 million CAD in federal retooling support it had previously received for Brampton’s originally planned conversion.
The 2,200 workers at the facility are directly affected. Stellantis Canada CEO Trevor Longley framed the Roshel deal as a path to “return the facility to productive industrial use” and committed to priority hiring consideration for Brampton workers under the new ownership. Longley also said Stellantis intends to work with Unifor toward a “fair, negotiated resolution” on severance and transition terms, though no specifics were offered on what that means in practice.
The sale caps months of acrimony. Talks broke down in September after ten days of negotiations, with Unifor refusing to accept the Roshel outcome, and the union subsequently authorized a strike vote. Today’s meeting did not produce a settlement, only a restatement of Stellantis’s position with the federal government in the room.
Unifor represents more than 9,000 workers at Stellantis facilities across Canada. The broader Canadian auto sector directly employs 105,600 people, with over 603,500 jobs tied to the industry directly and indirectly. Brampton’s fate carries weight beyond the facility itself: in 2025, Canadian autoworkers produced and shipped vehicles, parts, and trailers worth more than $92 billion, making plant closures politically and economically difficult to absorb quietly.
Stellantis’s return of the $24 million CAD is unusual. Federal retooling support is not typically handed back when plans change; the gesture appears calibrated to defuse a confrontation with Ottawa over what it got for the original investment. Whether the repayment satisfies the federal government or simply closes one line item while the larger labour dispute with Unifor continues is not yet clear.
The company insists Canada remains central to its North American manufacturing and R&D footprint. That claim will be tested against whatever Unifor and the government negotiate for the workers who built Chrysler 300s and Dodge Chargers in Brampton for decades. A cheque back to Ottawa and a promise of priority hiring at a defence contractor is a long way from the original plan.
Source: Stellantis. Images courtesy of Stellantis.
