Thank you for asking the question.
Canadians can judge for themselves. When you have a contract...and I'm happy because....
Colleagues, I've referred to one particular agreement. For those watching at home, if you want to have the full agreement...because there are different agreements. There are a lot of assertions being made here without having legal counsel providing counsel on what is being said.
If you look at the contract, the benefit commitments—for the people watching at home—make up over four pages of undertakings that the company has. They're not only with respect to jobs, which we're obviously going to fight for. They're also with respect to a number of undertakings in R and D investment in Canada, capital expenditure in Canada, making sure that we reduce the environmental impacts, the creation of an environmental sustainability plan and a supply chain in Canada, and limiting the work they can do outside of Canada—we have even guarantors for that.
Over time, the legal profession has evolved in terms of providing the set of tools that you need in the tool box to protect. What I want to stress to people watching at home is that these agreements have undertakings for more than a decade. This agreement is much more solid than what would have been done in the past with respect to that. Not only do you have to read this agreement—which I've tried to explain to my colleagues, if they want to go to the bottom of this—but you have to read the special contribution agreement with NextStar and understand the interaction between these contracts. That's where you have the full view of the contractual undertakings that were taken by Stellantis and its affiliates.
That's what I was trying to help colleagues better understand, because I served at the time and led the negotiation and, therefore, understand the interaction. I was there at the time. That's why I say that before people jump to conclusions, they really have to read these contracts together.
In what we've done with the officials, I think we have solid protection. That's why, as I said, what we have seen from Stellantis is unacceptable. I understand that there's an intention to provide a notice of default. There are very strong provisions to defend the commitments that were made.
Yes, during the negotiations, there were a lot of interaction with the workers and with the company to make sure that we would, at the time, have the best possible deal to protect the Brampton and Windsor facilities, get a battery plant and, at the same time, have a number of provisions that would guide us with respect to the disbursement. What colleagues don't want to hear when they talk about billions—this is why I brought the public accounts of Canada, and this is good for Canadians to know—is that $40 million has been disbursed under the special contribution agreement. The public accounts are very clear on that.
There are a lot of precedent conditions that need to be met before other amounts are disbursed. That's why I'm saying that I feel, under the circumstances and the negotiations we had, and with the investments we were able to attract to the country, considering the time.... You have to go back to 2023. Everyone was fighting to get these investments in their country; it was between us and the United States.
Look at the record. Don't take it from me. Bloomberg said we were ahead of China in building a supply chain. It's not me who said that; it was Bloomberg.
At some stage, with the benefit of hindsight.... I hear a lot of comments today from people who might not have been negotiating at the time, but I can tell you that when we stood and announced these investments, we were with the workers, the unions and the company, because we expected the company to fulfill all of its contractual obligations.