Joly and Carney aides met with Roshel before Stellantis plant sale
Lobbying records reveal multiple high-level government contacts with both companies in the weeks prior to the announcement.
By Simon Bennett ·
Federal lobbying filings show that senior staff for Industry Minister Melanie Joly and Prime Minister Mark Carney held meetings with Roshel, an armoured vehicle manufacturer, before the company announced its intent to purchase the idled Stellantis assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario. The records indicate that Joly’s chief of staff, Paul Moen, and policy director David McFarlane met with Roshel representatives in August and September. These two officials met with the company again on Oct. 15.
The prime minister’s senior global affairs adviser, Matthew Hall, also met with Roshel on Oct. 15. Two sources familiar with the matter said that Roshel CEO Roman Shimanov attended that specific meeting. The Prime Minister’s Office did not provide a comment to the news organization reporting the findings. Joly’s office stated that the minister herself had not met with Roshel before the deal was made public on Monday. Her office did not immediately clarify whether she was briefed on the staff-level meetings or if they were formally sanctioned.
In September alone, the federal government held ten high-level meetings with Stellantis. The final recorded meeting took place on Sept. 29 and included Carney’s deputy chief of staff, Tim Krupa, alongside Joly, Moen, and McFarlane. The registry for Stellantis only includes data through September, meaning any meetings held in October are not yet listed. Additionally, the registry does not track meetings requested by the government itself.
Carney initially described the sale as a betrayal of Canadian workers. However, speaking in Dublin on Thursday, he acknowledged that his government was aware of parts of the plan. He characterized the Roshel deal as a partial solution for the thousands of workers at the plant. A senior government official said privately that Ottawa set expectations for Stellantis regarding worker protections that the company has not met.
The proposed deal includes a pledge from Stellantis to pay the pensions of all eligible workers. Approximately 60 percent of the Brampton workforce is retirement eligible. Stellantis has also offered to repay $24 million of the funds previously provided to retool the plant. The government has paid Stellantis at least $222 million for retooling efforts in Brampton and Windsor. Roshel has indicated that a European car company, potentially Jaguar, has expressed interest in leasing part of the facility.
Joly is scheduled to meet with Unifor, Stellantis, and Ontario government representatives in Toronto on Thursday. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has demanded answers regarding the total amount of taxpayer money at stake and whether job guarantees were tied to the funding. He criticized Carney for shifting his public stance from calling the sale a betrayal to describing it as a partial solution.
