The simple truth about who censored a multi-million-dollar deal between the Canadian government and automotive giant Stellantis has ignited a political firestorm, with both sides pointing fingers at the other. At the heart of the scandal is hundreds of millions in federal Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) incentives intended to maintain and grow Stellantis’s Brampton, Ontario assembly plant.
The controversy began when Industry Canada provided the House of Commons Government Operations Committee with heavily redacted copies of the agreement, despite the Committee’s constitutionally powerful demand for full, unedited versions. ISED (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada dept.) officials repeatedly testified last week that the censoring was done at the request of Stellantis, insisting the automaker wanted certain information kept confidential.
But this week, Stellantis punched back. In a letter to the Committee, the company’s Director of External Affairs, Teresa Piruzza, flatly contradicted the government’s testimony, stating: “Stellantis did not propose or suggest any of the redactions applied to the version of the SIF agreement the Committee received from ISED”. Furthermore, the letter claims that ISED proposed all the redactions to Stellantis, who merely gave consent to share the document in that redacted form.
Conservative MP Kelly Block declared: “Someone is not telling us the truth, and now we have to get to the bottom of it”. The conflicting claims immediately raise the specter of potentially lying to Parliament. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, clearly uncomfortable with the revelation, swiftly reversed course, telling the press her department would now send the full, unedited deal to the committee, provided certain conditions are met. This reversal signals that the government is trying to contain the damage caused by the contradictory statements.
The entire scrutiny process was triggered when Stellantis announced in mid-October that it would move some Jeep production from the Brampton plant to the US following pressure from the Trump administration. The Committee is now demanding both ISED officials and Stellantis appear to explain the bewildering breakdown in communication, or, more likely, to clarify who fabricated the truth about the redacted documents.
