General Motors' CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont. The company said this week it would end production of the Chevrolet BrightDrop electric parcel van at the plant.Mark Spowart/The Canadian Press
Ottawa’s move to impose tariffs on some vehicles imported by General Motors Co. GM-N and Stellantis NV STLA-N will harm Canada’s manufacturing sector and drive off investments, the Detroit Three automakers say.
The Government of Canada on Thursday said it will reduce the number of vehicles the carmakers can import tariff-free, in response to moves by the two automakers to end some production in Ontario or shift plans to the U.S. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said on social media the government is “deeply disappointed” by the Stellantis and GM actions.
Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, which represents GM, Stellantis and Ford Motor Co. in Canada, called Canada’s retaliation “an unforced error at the worst possible time.”
“We share the government’s goal of protecting Canada’s auto industry and its workers,” Mr. Kingston said. Tariffs on automakers already under enormous pressure from U.S. trade policies only makes a difficult situation worse, he said.
In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25-per-cent tariffs on imported vehicles, Canada earlier this year launched a tariff remissions plan for the automakers that assemble cars domestically. The cars these companies import from the U.S. remain tariff-free if the automakers maintain a certain production quota in Canada. Details of the agreements are confidential.
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Ottawa determined Stellantis and GM violated the agreements with recent moves: GM ended production of the Chevrolet BrightDrop electric parcel van in Ingersoll, Ont., costing 1,150 jobs; and Stellantis moved planned production of the Jeep Compass to Illinois from Brampton, Ont., where about 3,000 are currently laid off.
In a letter to GM Canada president Kristian Aquilina, Mr. Champagne also highlighted declining production of the Chevrolet Silverado at GM’s Oshawa plant. GM has been boosting the pickup truck’s output at U.S. plants, he noted in the letter posted online.
Mr. Champagne reduced Stellantis’s import quota by 50 per cent and GM’s by 24 per cent.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly threatened to sue Stellantis over the Jeep move, which the automaker made as part of a plan to boost U.S. output by 50 per cent over the next four years, adding more than 5,000 jobs in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
As the company’s relations with Ottawa sour, Stellantis on Friday said it is replacing the president of its Canadian division. Jeff Hines, who assumed the president’s job in March, 2024, will become senior vice-president of North America fleet solutions. Trevor Longley, formerly with Nissan Canada, takes the job as president of Stellantis Canada.
Mr. Hines “takes on this newly created role because of his understanding of the automotive industry and his strong background in product, sales and the dealer network,” Stellantis spokeswoman LouAnn Gosselin said.
In an interview, Mr. Kingston said manufacturers facing remissions rules would rather export cars to Canada than build them here and risk being hit with tariffs.
“This is completely eroding our competitiveness right now for manufacturing,” Mr. Kingston said. “The tariff regime plus the EV mandate, now we have legal threats being levied to companies. It is virtually impossible to imagine a scenario where someone is looking at new investments in Canada under this framework.”
Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, welcomed Ottawa’s move.
“I think Canada needs to demonstrate to the automakers that even though we’re 100-year partners, that partnership goes both ways,” Mr. Volpe said.
He pointed to the billions of dollars Canadian taxpayers have given the automakers over the years – including aid in the financial crisis that saved both companies from bankruptcy and more recent plant investments.
“We can’t just passively look on when they don’t live up to their covenants,” Mr. Volpe said.
Stellantis Canada imported about 130,000 cars in 2024, he said, while GM Canada imported 295,000.
The Stellantis Brampton factory has been idle for almost two years awaiting a retooling to build the Jeep.
Both automakers say the plants are not permanently closed, and are looking at options for other vehicles to build there.
Ontario is home to plants owned by Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Honda and Toyota. Ford’s Oakville plant is idle but being retooled to make pickup trucks, the company says.