Stellantis has agreed to sell its idled Brampton auto plant to defence manufacturer Roshel as workers seek job guarantees
BRAMPTON, Ont. – National News Service – Stellantis has signed an agreement to sell its idled Brampton assembly plant and equipment to Canadian armoured-vehicle maker Roshel, ending hopes that the site would return to large-scale auto assembly under its current owner.
The price was not disclosed. The companies say the transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to government, regulatory and other closing conditions.
Roshel plans to turn the site into a centre for advanced manufacturing serving Canadian and allied defence markets. Stellantis and Roshel also agreed to explore co-operation on vehicle technology and related defence services.
The deal carries national weight because the plant was part of Canada’s auto-manufacturing base, received public support for a planned retooling and sits at the centre of a labour dispute involving more than 9,000 Stellantis employees in Canada. More than 2,000 Brampton workers have been on layoff since production stopped in 2023.
Stellantis began retooling the plant for Jeep production in 2024, paused the work in early 2025 and later moved planned Jeep Compass production to Illinois. The company says it recognizes its duties under the collective agreement and the law and is prepared to negotiate a settlement for unionized employees.
Unifor calls the sale a loss of Canadian vehicle-production capacity and says Stellantis is abandoning commitments to its members. The union has a 97.3 per cent strike mandate, though national president Lana Payne said workers were not yet in a legal strike position and a strike remained a last resort.
Roshel expects opportunities for about 700 to 1,000 laid-off workers as the facility returns to use and plans to lease roughly one-quarter of the site back to Stellantis for automotive work. Those numbers were not included in the companies’ securities filing and should be confirmed with Roshel before publication.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly said the sale does not erase Stellantis’ commitments to Brampton workers. She has called a meeting involving the company, the union, Ontario and federal officials this week, but a public date had not been announced by the research cutoff.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown welcomed new manufacturing at the site but said Stellantis must reach a fair settlement with workers and repay public money tied to automotive production. Ottawa has said it will recover funding if the automaker fails to meet its obligations, but the amount and repayment terms were not public Tuesday.
The central questions now are how many jobs Roshel will create, how many former Stellantis workers will be hired, what happens to the collective agreement and whether governments approve the sale. The four-party meeting and the closing conditions will determine how quickly those answers emerge.
Source notes
– Stellantis and Roshel joint release filed with the U.S. SEC, dated Nov. 9 and filed Nov. 10, 2026
