OTTAWA — Stellantis, the automotive giant, has stated that it was the government, not the company, that insisted on redacting parts of a controversial agreement with Ottawa. This agreement, which is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, was requested by a Commons committee. A letter from Stellantis to the House Government Operations Committee contradicts previous testimony from officials at Industry Canada (ISED), who claimed that the company had requested the redactions.

In response to Stellantis's letter, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly announced that her department would release the unredacted agreement to the committee after previously refusing to do so. "I received the letter (from Stellantis) earlier. There’s no problem, we’ll remove the redactions and send it to the committee," Joly said. However, the conflicting statements from Stellantis and ISED raise questions about the accuracy of the information provided to Members of Parliament (MPs).

Conservative and Bloc Québécois committee members have called for both Stellantis and ISED to explain their positions to Parliament, starting with Stellantis this Thursday. Conservative MP Kelly Block expressed her shock at Stellantis's letter, stating, "Someone is not telling us the truth, and now we have to get to the bottom of it."

Since October, the Government Operations Committee has been in discussions with Stellantis and the federal government regarding unredacted copies of the agreement related to the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF). This fund is intended to support Stellantis in maintaining and expanding its assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario. The scrutiny intensified after Stellantis announced plans to shift production of certain Jeep models from the Ontario plant to the U.S., following pressure from the Trump administration to enhance American auto manufacturing.

In response to Stellantis's announcement, committee members passed a motion demanding unredacted copies of all agreements between Stellantis and Ottawa since 2015 concerning the Brampton Assembly Plant. Parliamentary privilege allows committees to demand full access to documents and witnesses to fulfill their duties. However, ISED only provided a redacted version of the agreements, leading to concerns about a potential breach of this privilege.

During a recent committee meeting, ISED officials attributed the redactions to Stellantis. ISED Deputy Minister Philip Jennings stated, "In our discussions with Stellantis, we were comfortable with the redactions that they brought to this document." Additionally, ISED Director General Denis Martel confirmed that Stellantis had requested confidentiality for the redacted information.

Stellantis was scheduled to attend the meeting virtually but did not participate, citing technical issues. In a letter sent to the committee, Stellantis's Director of External Affairs, Teresa Piruzza, contradicted ISED's claims. "To be clear: Stellantis did not propose or suggest any of the redactions applied to the version of the SIF Agreement that the Committee received from ISED," Piruzza wrote. She clarified that the redactions were proposed by ISED when it sought Stellantis's consent to share the agreement with the committee, which Stellantis granted.

Piruzza also indicated that Stellantis would not oppose ISED providing MPs with the unredacted document, provided that certain safeguards were in place, such as limiting access to committee members and ensuring confidentiality during discussions.

ISED has not yet responded to inquiries regarding the conflicting accounts. Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau expressed her outrage, stating, "If this information is true, it is astonishing that the Industry department claimed Stellantis was uncomfortable with the disclosure of information related to the contract when this was simply not the case."

Block added that Stellantis's letter raised more questions than it answered. "We called for unredacted documents, and we received redacted documents, and we’re told it’s because Stellantis refused to give us anything but redacted," she said. Liberal MP Jenna Sudds declined to comment when approached by reporters.