In a committee meeting on Tuesday, November 25th, regarding investments into Stellantis, Conservative MP Jeremy Patzer managed to pry out the fact that Melanie Joly, Minister of Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, never read the contracts she claimed that Stellantis breached.
The issue stems from Stellantis’ announcement they would be moving production of the Jeep Compass to the U.S., laying off 3000 Canadians. Minister Melanie Joly claims that Stellantis breached the contract by doing this, but was unable to provide any proof of the claim. The meeting came to a head when witnesses shared that neither Joly, the Privy Council Office (PCO), nor the government’s legal team had read the entirety of the $15bn contract before signing it. The kicker? Stellantis was supposed to be at the meeting, but failed to tune in due to "IT issues". Present in the meeting were Philip Jennings, Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED); Stephanie Tanton, Assistant Deputy Minister of Innovation Canada; Denis Martel, Director General of Innovation Canada; and Benoit Tessier, Director General of the Industry Sector—all appointed officials.
What are the Stellantis contracts?
The Government of Canada signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with automaker Stellantis to build a battery plant in Windsor, Ont. In total, the government of Canada has three contracts signed with Stellantis, all of which can reportedly be voided if Stellantis breaches any clauses. The problem is that we don't know what's in the contracts, and the Minister who signed them might not know either. The government of Canada released 70 pages of documents, but they were heavily redacted, leaving other government officials wondering about the details. In total, the contracts have avenues for $15bn in Canadian investment using public funds.
Joly never read the contract?
In the meeting on November 25, a meeting that a representative from Stellantis was supposed to be at but failed to show, Jeremy Patzer found out that nobody had read the contract. When it was time for the MP from Swift Current - Grasslands – Kindersley, Saskatchewan, to question witnesses, he first asked whether Joly approved all the redactions, to which Jennings replied, “We did not interact with the minister's office about this, related to the redactions.” When Patzer pushed further, asking, “Has the minister seen the fully redacted contract?” Jennings confirmed,“If she has, it certainly wouldn’t be through my office, so my sense is no.”
Jennings then continued to seemingly tell on himself and the minister. “I have actually not seen the fully unredacted version myself.” The answer clearly took Patzer by surprise, and he took a beat before continuing, asking, “You’re saying only four, maybe six other people have seen this contract? Has the Privy Council (PCO) seen the contract?
“My sense is no, they would not have seen it, we really treat these documents with a lot of care so at the end of the day its on a need to know basis.” Apparently, the elected officials signing off on the document don’t “need to know”. Jennings did go on to clarify, “these were negotiated before I was deputy… Had it been negotiated when I was deputy, I would have seen the documents,” but could not confirm whether the previous deputy had seen the contracts. Jennings was then asked whether any sort of legal department had seen the contracts, to which he asked to convene with Tanton, Martel, and Tessier. Tanton responded, saying that legal oversaw certain clauses of the contract, but “do they see the whole thing? Denis? No I don’t think so.” Denis Martel shook his head when she turned to him mid-sentence.
Patzer sat open-mouthed and shocked. Yes, that’s right, the legal team for a contract estimated at $15bn wasn’t overseen in full by any legal team before being signed by elected government officials at the directive of appointed department employees. “[The legal team] would be pulled in where clauses are deviating from what we would normally negotiate.”
It leaves the question, how does Minister Melanie Joly know what clauses Stellantis has breached, and how many other items are in the contract that let the corporations cut Canadian jobs?
Breaching a contract you've never seen
Suspicion about the $15bn deal began in a meeting on November 3rd, where Minister Joly herself was present.
The meeting began with a speech from Joly, who claimed that Stellantis had breached its contract through job guarantees and that the government would take action to rectify the situation. When Joly was asked about the specifics of the job guarantee in the contract, she was unable to give any solid numbers. Since the Government has only released a heavily redacted version of the contract, there was no way for Committee members to dispute her claim.
“You will see in the contract, you will see that there’s job numbers – the government will be acting in good faith.”
Joly cited that one reason for the redaction was “commercially sensitive” matters. Still, the government had no problem releasing unredacted versions of a similar contract signed with NextStar Energy to fund a battery plant, sparking questions in Parliament. Joly then failed to answer a follow-up about a specific clause linking the three Stellantis contracts. “Maybe Charles [Vincent], if you want to be able to address the question?”
Charles Vincent is the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of the Industry Sector.
Contrasting claims
Shortly after trying to deflect to Vincent, Joly gave a conflicting statement, claiming that “[the contract] is linked to the fact that the Brampton facility must be operating – if the Brampton facility ceases production, there will be a violation of a contract.” Charles Vincent claimed that there are “regular commitments around jobs, around the maintenance of activities.” Once again, no details. Joly was then asked whether she would withdraw the funding (up to $15bn) if they don’t “properly equip” the 3,000 laid-off employees in Brampton. Joly said they would “continue to hold [Stellantis] accountable,” but refused to confirm whether the government would cut funding.
MP Raquel Dancho pressed further, asking, “You’ve kind of been quite evasive about the numbers, whether there’s a real guarantee. It should be explicit if you’re going to give a historic amount of taxpayer funding. I’m not sure you understand the amount of money you have committed.”
Dancho broke down the sheer volume of wealth, saying that it would take 647,000 two-member households a full year of work to fund this bill. It’s more than likely that MP Dancho is correct; Minister Joly does not understand the amount of money because she hasn’t read an unedited version of the contract she signed.
According to Patzer, the government has already paid out almost half a billion dollars of this contract, and apparently, not a single elected official has seen the details. A contract designed to create Canadian jobs may end up paying for factories in America.