Industry and Technology Committee on Oct. 29th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Then you're not giving unanimous consent for it to be played.

[Karim Bardeesy, Liberal, Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park, ON]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Unanimous consent has not been given, in which case, Ms. Borrelli, I'm going to afford you a moment to ask a question and I'll try to be reasonable here.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

She only did a minute of her time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Sorry, do you have a point of order, Madam Dancho?

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Yes.

My understanding is, Mr. Chair, that she only did less than a minute of her time and we've been on this UC thing since then. She should have about four minutes—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Yes, I'm going to give a little bit of time here. This is not a legitimate point of order. I have entertained this to try to be reasonable.

Ms. Borrelli, begin with your line of questioning. I'm not going to cut you off at any particular moment that's not reasonable. Just go ahead, but I can't grant you the entirety of it.

Go ahead.

[Kathy Borrelli, Conservative, Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Basically, going through this, we can pass around what the robocall said.

First, in the robocall, they talk about the $13 billion they're going to invest in the States before they even tell the employees that they're cutting them off and they won't have their jobs. These are employees who have already been on layoff for two years and are expecting to go back to work. They're telling them that they're indefinitely laid off now.

Mr. Hines, is it common practice for your company to inform employees by robocall that they no longer have a future in your company?

[Jeff Hines]

First off, I would say there is still a future, there is still potential and there is some opportunity for all of our employees at Brampton. In the short term, it's making all the opportunities and all the available additional jobs at Windsor...if that fits for that family or that employee who is currently laid off at Brampton. We are working with our union colleagues to extend benefits to those folks for a longer period of time than was originally provided in the contract. We want to try to take care of those employees.

Certainly, I can understand and appreciate the frustration of the employees and of yourself in how it was done. Certainly it's a challenging message, at the very least. We want to try to do what we can for those employees, moving forward.

[Kathy Borrelli, Conservative, Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Hines, unemployment benefits are meant for a short term. Years and years of unemployment benefits do not pay the mortgage and do not put food on the table, so I hope those workers in Brampton get back to work really fast.

In addition, for 100 years, workers in Windsor have depended on the work available at the assembly plant. That plant provides stable income for my community. In my community, 24,000 workers depend on the auto industry for jobs that are safe and provide well for their families.

This would include the third shift, which was recently added to your plant. Will you assure workers in the Windsor area that their jobs are secure? Do you intend to maintain your footprint in Windsor and in Canada?

[Jeff Hines]

That is fully our intention, and we're excited to bring on 1,500 new workers. We're excited to bring the capacity of that plant to the 200,000, 210,000, 220,000 units that we're going to build in Canada each and every year. We're excited about getting those employees and having that plant build even more than it does today.

[Kathy Borrelli, Conservative, Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, ON]

I'm really glad to hear that. Thank you.

You promised my community that the NextStar battery plant would create 2,500 direct jobs.

Is that still the number? When will you reach that number of employment at that plant?

[Jeff Hines]

As I mentioned before, we're at roughly 1,000 today. The number continues to grow.

I think the market dynamics across the North American market, as well as in Canada, have shifted a little bit. That's something we're taking into account, but our plans are to continue to expand at NextStar, expand some of the capability at the plant and continue our progress there.

[Kathy Borrelli, Conservative, Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, ON]

That's good to hear, but I believe you had a commitment to provide 2,500 jobs within a year of opening the plant. Is that not true?

[Jeff Hines]

I don't have the timing in front of me, so I cannot answer that question. That was a year from the time that it opened. I apologize.

I do know that we continue to expand, and, as I said, we want to continue to expand. Our collective investment there is large, and we want to make sure that it continues.

[Kathy Borrelli, Conservative, Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you so much.

Are you telling me that Canadians can trust that you're going to be finding a new product to bring to Brampton and that you're going to continue your footprint across Canada and grow your factories in Brampton and in Windsor?

[Jeff Hines]

I certainly have stated that. The first step in adding jobs across Canada is the 1,500 that are coming to Windsor. That's ongoing, and we're excited about that, but I will be clear that we need the market dynamics to settle down. We need some consistency in our trade policy moving forward. That's what we really need for step one, so that we can do all those things and continue what you just mentioned.

However, we are adding 1,500 jobs. We're very excited about that and we can't wait to get going.

[Kathy Borrelli, Conservative, Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, ON]

My community is depending on you to keep your word.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Mr. Erskine-Smith, you have five minutes.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

You mentioned in your opening remarks, and I think I have it right, that “It's not just a market to us. It's a home.” That's what you said when you were talking about Canada.

You've been a little bit high-level, a little bit vague. You talked about economic landscape change, an unusual time, a fluid situation.

Maybe you can be a bit more specific. Tell me about the market decision to abandon thousands of workers in your home at the worst possible time, when our auto sector's under attack. Walk me through that in greater detail.

[Jeff Hines]

Let me digest that for a second.

It was certainly a decision that was not taken lightly by anyone at Stellantis or anyone locally here in Canada. It was certainly a challenging decision to make.

With the current tariff situation and the unknowns that the current market has given, not only Stellantis and auto manufacturing but also the historic partnerships that we've had for products that we make are certainly challenged in today's environment. That is primarily what led us to make some of the decisions that we had to make.

That said—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I have to jump in there, because as of February 2025, the retooling is paused, and your company made a public statement saying, “This does not change our previously announced investment plans for Brampton.”

Less than a year later, things have drastically changed, and you walked away from that commitment. Can you explain that?

[Jeff Hines]

Certainly. What happened between then and the time that we made our announcement is the economic uncertainty of our trade policy today. That's primarily number one.

We certainly—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

You've been very clear.

In a previous answer to a Bloc member's question, you said there were lots of different factors, but it's the tariffs. Let's be honest with ourselves; it's the tariffs.

Earlier you—

[Jeff Hines]

Certainly, in large part.