Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry visited Windsor on Tuesday to meet with officials at Stellantis.
The Windsor Assembly Plant and its feeder plants went dark for two weeks on Monday April 7, after Stellantis paused production, citing U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on all foreign-made automobiles are in effect as of midnight Wednesday, though the U.S. administration has yet to “establish(es) a process” to tax exclusively the non-American vehicle components of CUSMA-compliant products.
In response, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would slap 25 per cent tariffs on all U.S. vehicles not compliant with CUSMA.
Industry Minister Anita Anand told AM800’s The Shift with Patty Handysides that the federal government recognizes Stellantis’ importance to not only the Canadian economy, but to the Windsor economy as well.
“Certainly I heard that there is every intention to come back on April 21 as scheduled,” Anand said. “That was very good news for us to hear, and we need to make sure that in the long term also, Canadian production is maintained.”
According to Anand, the federal government is committed to ensuring jobs and manufacturing stays in Canada, and added that they have entered into an agreement with Stellantis under the Strategic Innovation Fund.
“I was here to stress that we’re committed to working with Stellantis to alleviate the pressure of tariffs on their manufacturing operations right here Windsor,” she said. “That was really the purpose of my meeting. We need to find the path forward to maintain Stellantis’ footprint here in Canada.”
Anand said the government will soon be issuing a remission framework that incentivizes Stellantis to maintain production and investment in Canada, securing jobs.
“I’ve been speaking with Stellantis and the other auto manufacturers to take their feedback because we got to get this right, we have to save as many jobs as possible, and we’ll be issuing that framework in the coming days,” she said.
Last month at a campaign stop in Windsor, Carney announced that a Liberal government would create a $2-billion Strategic Response Fund to boost Canada’s auto sector’s competitiveness, protect manufacturing jobs, and build a stronger Canadian automotive supply chain.
— AM800 News
