Government Operations Committee on Dec. 9th, 2025

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome to meeting number 21 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(c), we are resuming our study on the response of the government to the motion for the production of papers adopted on October 20, 2025, about contracts with Stellantis.

We are welcoming back some members from industry regarding these documents.

I understand, Mr. Jennings, that you have an opening statement for us.

[Philip Jennings, Deputy Minister, Department of Industry]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to all members of this committee for inviting me back.

I welcome the opportunity to provide clarity and additional information in your deliberations related to the Stellantis agreement with Canada.

Let me begin by saying that what I said on November 25 at this committee—that Stellantis proposed the redactions—reflected my honest understanding at that time.

As I also said on November 25, and as Stellantis confirmed in its recent testimony before this committee, Stellantis had agreed to the redacted version of the agreement shared with the committee, and the redactions concerned commercially sensitive information.

I fully support the right of parliamentarians to request and to view documents. Given the balance my department seeks to strike between ensuring we share information transparently with Parliament and its committees, and ensuring we protect commercially confidential information through our contractual obligations, we sought to share an agreement with very limited redactions.

I also want to situate this in its operational context and timeline, because that matters.

This committee first asked to see the contract on October 20. Given the urgency and out of concern to comply with the committee's request right away, departmental officials proactively made redactions based on their understanding of the information that Stellantis and other companies had previously asked to be kept confidential. This was done partly to save time and partly to ensure that the committee received the document as soon as possible. The contract was submitted to you on November 6.

As of December 4, this committee has the full, unredacted contract, which was shared with you following confirmation that Stellantis consented to doing so. I would also reiterate that the Stellantis representative noted last Thursday that Stellantis and the department have worked in a long-standing context of confidentiality. Over the life of major industrial arrangements, the department responds to committee requests, access to information processes and other forms of scrutiny.

As a result, we have detailed institutional knowledge of what the companies consider to be commercially sensitive information. That's why officials acted quickly, in good faith and to meet this committee's deadlines.

I also want to speak to the role of public servants in this work. In dealing with businesses across the country, confidentiality arrangements are a normal part of securing investments, supporting innovation and delivering good jobs for Canadians. Balancing transparency with the protection of legitimate commercial information is a core responsibility, and we take that responsibility seriously.

To be able to make cautious and responsible investment decisions, the government needs to rely on commercially sensitive information that companies provide to us during our due diligence process. Companies provide us with this information because they trust us to protect it.

Upholding that trust is fundamental to our work and is essential to safeguarding the public interest. The reason for this is simple. These agreements and the confidentiality required to implement them are vital to protecting Canadian jobs, communities and workers.

Finally, let me close with this. We are here to work with you. My department and I stand ready to answer every question you have. We are committed to assisting this committee in its work, including its review of the unredacted Stellantis contract, with a view to ensuring that all members have the information they need. That commitment is unwavering.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much.

We'll start with Mrs. Block for six minutes please.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

I will be splitting my time with Ms. Jansen at the three-minute mark.

Although I was not in attendance at the last committee meeting where you appeared, I watched, with interest, your testimony where you told members that Stellantis had been the one to propose redactions to you, after which of course Stellantis outlined, in a strongly worded letter, that they did not recommend or suggest any redactions to the SIF agreements we received.

Today, you come here and say that it was your “honest understanding” when you provided that testimony to us. You also said today that officials proactively redacted the documents before going to Stellantis. That's very different from what you presented to committee at your first appearance.

My question for you is this. Who told you to lie to this committee?

[Philip Jennings]

I'll start by just saying that I've also reflected since my last appearance before you. It's clear to me that I could have been much clearer about the redaction process. I regret that the committee was left with a mistaken impression. I certainly had no intention to misrepresent. I am happy today to provide as much clarity as I can and answer those questions.

What I can say is that no one asked me to lie. In what I represented to the committee, the part that was accurate was that Stellantis did consent to the redactions that were in the version of the redacted document that was shared with you.

I can also say that my understanding at the time, which was ultimately incorrect, is that Stellantis had initially proposed those redactions.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

You understood that.

You're the deputy minister. It took Stellantis writing a strongly worded letter in response to what they heard you tell this committee. We were not the only the ones under this mistaken assumption that you presented to this committee; it was also Stellantis.

Your obligation as a public servant is to Parliament, yet today you continue to represent the fact that you were simply trying to protect their commercial interests by not presenting this committee with the unredacted documents.

In fact, in response to my questions last week, Ms. Piruzza actually said they were also the ones who proposed that we be given the unredacted documents.

Who told you to refuse an order from this committee after it was unanimously agreed to by all members that we would call for the unredacted documents?

[Philip Jennings]

First, I'd say that the right of parliamentarians to see documents of the kind requested is fundamental to their ability to hold the government...to Parliament and to Canadians.

As part of our regular work, the department does come into possession of confidential information at infrequent times. We are asked at different times to produce those documents. The process that is typically involved is in—

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Mr. Jennings, my question was, who told you not to provide the unredacted documents? It's a simple question. Were you the one who made that decision as the deputy minister?

[Philip Jennings]

The process that we followed was—

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I want to know who made the decision because I'm challenging the process. We're parliamentarians.

Actually, I'm going to end there and I'm going to turn it over to my colleague.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

I have exactly the same question. You make it very clear that your commitment to Stellantis seems to be much stronger than it is to parliamentarians, so I have to ask the exact same question. Who on earth would have told you that you needed to make sure we didn't get to see unredacted documents, which is what was asked for by the entire committee?

[Philip Jennings]

What I can say, which is what I said at my last committee appearance here, is that we try to strike a balance in terms of providing documents that parliamentarians are asking for with the commercially—

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

We do have that testimony. What we're looking for now is who would have told you that Stellantis is the one that gets the priority here in this case.

[Philip Jennings]

I never said there was a priority.

What I said is that it's a balance between trying to provide Parliament with what it needs with the commercially confidential clauses that are in our contracts.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Who would have decided that parliamentarians do not get an unredacted document? That's the basic question here.

[Philip Jennings]

No one ever made that decision.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Well, somebody did because that's what we got.

[Philip Jennings]

What we proposed in the letter to this committee was an approach that was adopted in past parliaments where unredacted versions of contracts were shared with parliamentarians. This worked and was accepted by past committees of INDU and ENVI. We were proposing the exact same thing in this case.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Excuse me. I have a very short time.

I know you talked last time about how that's how it's been done before. That's not what we asked for at this committee. We asked for the documents as we needed them. The entire committee asked for that.

You're saying that the other committees accepted this, so that's why this decision was made. Is that your testimony now?

[Philip Jennings]

My testimony is that this is what I proposed to this committee—

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

You proposed that.

[Philip Jennings]

I proposed that through a process of consulting with Stellantis. We both agreed to sharing a redacted version of the contract.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

That puts Stellantis ahead of parliamentarians.

[Philip Jennings]

Since that time, we and Stellantis have both shared and agreed to share an unredacted version of the contract. The document is fully available to you now and we look forward to being able to answer any questions.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

It is, after we fought like crazy.