Stellans says it is moving production of the Jeep Compass out of Brampton, Ontario to Illinois. 3,000 Canadian jobs are being affected. It s part of the company s $13 billion plan to boost production south of the border. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is in Kenora. He said it s time to hit back against that, quote, " tyrant, tyrant Trump."
00:00:00.000I am your host. Welcome, my friends. High-level trade talks between Canada and the United States
00:00:11.120have resumed in Washington following more bad economic news for Canada's auto sector.
00:00:17.360Stellantis says it is moving production of the Jeep Compass out of Brampton, Ontario to Illinois.
00:00:23.3203,000 Canadian jobs are being affected. It's part of the company's $13 billion plan to boost production south of the border.
00:00:32.780Ontario Premier Doug Ford is in Kenora. He said it's time to hit back against that, quote, tyrant Trump.
00:00:40.120My number one job is make sure we protect the people of Ontario.
00:00:44.900I need to protect the communities against that tyrant south of the border, which drives me absolutely nuts.
00:00:50.780That guy, President Trump, he's a real piece of work. You know something?
00:00:54.760What my message to the prime minister when I meet him on Thursday is if you can't get a deal, let's start hitting him back.
00:01:01.480Let's start hitting the U.S. back hard.
00:01:04.080Okay. Ford says he spoke with the president of Stellantis.
00:01:07.260He says the company did not live up to its agreement with the people of Brampton as far as keeping that plant open.
00:01:14.600But he still puts the blame at the feet of Donald Trump.
00:01:18.260You know, it's disappointing. They said they're going to keep Brampton open.
00:01:21.740I had a conversation with the president of Stellantis yesterday.
00:01:25.360He said, well, we're going to postpone it for a year. We're going to find a new model.
00:01:29.740He's given me his word. They're going to keep it open.
00:01:32.780They're going to see what products they're going to put in there.
00:01:35.600But again, his words, not mine, but it's everyone in the world.
00:01:39.020He goes, there's uncertainty. Until we see a deal made between Canada and the U.S., the Kuzma deal, how do you figure any company can figure it out?
00:01:48.720It's the uncertainty that President Trump has not just brought to Canada.
00:01:55.500That plant in Brampton has been idle since 2023. At that time, the company said it was going to retool for the Jeep Compass.
00:02:03.720The provincial government vowed to chip in $132 million to help retool that plant for EV production.
00:02:10.240This post by Conservative MP Raquel Dancho.
00:02:13.640Shocking news from Stellantis today. The Liberals gave Stellantis up to $15 billion for EV battery production, but apparently failed to secure any guarantee to protect Stellantis' wider manufacturing footprint in Canada.
00:02:30.680Unfortunately, we're talking about EVs that consumers have shown little interest in buying.
00:02:36.300Only about 9% of new cars sold in Canada are EVs.
00:02:40.840The company's plans changed, of course, when President Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported automobiles.
00:02:48.760The Prime Minister was quick to blame the move on those tariffs, saying that Stellantis' decision is a direct consequence of the U.S. tariffs and possible future trade actions, quote,
00:02:59.960Until a more certain trade environment for the North American auto sector is established through the upcoming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement, decisions on new investments in the auto sector will continue to be affected.
00:03:17.360The McCarthy government has so far failed to reach a deal, a trade deal with the Trump administration, despite his election promise, campaign-wise, to do so by July the 21st.
00:03:28.340Here he is weeks ago, assuring Canadians we already have the best deal with the Americans under the current USMCA.
00:03:36.340We have the best deal of any one in the world right now.
00:03:42.000We have the lowest tariff rate on average, a little over 5.5% versus that 16% average for the world, and in many cases, much higher.
00:03:51.520We have that confirmed in the executive order of the president a few weeks ago.
00:03:56.280So, it's important that we preserve that.
00:04:00.000We happen to have the best deal with the Americans.
00:04:04.500This post by Pierre Polyev, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:04:08.660Tough day for 3,000 Brampton Stellantis workers who just learned that Mark Carney sold them out and let their jobs move to the United States after promising to negotiate a win with President Trump and giving billions of dollars in handouts to the company.
00:04:26.420He elbows down Prime Minister, got no job guarantees for autoworkers, weak leader, broken promises, lost jobs.
00:04:35.940For its part, the company says it does have plans for the Brampton plant, but wants to talk to the federal government first.
00:04:43.080Does that mean they're looking for more tax dollars?
00:05:30.400I'm calling today because I want to share some important news that involves our plant.
00:05:35.480Our CEO, Emponio Pelosa, just announced the largest single investment in our company's 100-year history.
00:05:42.340$13 billion over the next four years to grow our business in the U.S.
00:05:48.340What does this mean for Brampton Assembly?
00:05:51.060For now, this means that those on layoff will remain on layoff.
00:05:55.780We recognize the uncertainty this brings and will be working closely with Unifor to develop a plan that supports you through this transition.
00:06:03.240We will continue to share updates as soon as more information becomes available.
00:06:18.060Yeah, I thought that the way that that announcement, that recorded announcement came out was particularly cruel because it starts off talking about this huge investment by the company, you know, $13 billion or whatever it was.
00:06:31.920And then, you know, 30 seconds later, you realize none of that investment is coming to Canada.
00:06:37.440Good for you for getting that recording, Mario.
00:06:39.840What do you make of this announcement in Brampton?
00:06:42.060I think it's concerning on multiple fronts.
00:06:46.200One concerning because Mark Carney clearly hasn't expedited and put the negotiations of these tariffs that we have with the U.S. at the forefront.
00:06:55.560If he prioritized that as the number one thing instead of, you know, flying around to different countries, who knows what could have happened?
00:07:03.520And now we're playing the what if game.
00:07:06.020And what if he actually prioritized it and dealt with that?
00:07:09.320Because remember, when he first replaced Justin Trudeau and he was prime minister because he took over, he immediately flew over to the U.K.
00:07:18.820He didn't start negotiating with tariffs.
00:07:20.440Like it was just it's almost like as though he put it in the back burner.
00:07:25.040And not only that, like it the way this has come down, it was an eventuality unless he started really prioritizing it.
00:07:34.300And so I think Canadians have a lot to be concerned about with their government that we still do not have a deal.
00:07:40.600How is it that the tariffs were announced later for the U.K., later for all these other countries, and yet they reached some sort of an agreement, at least in principle?
00:07:49.820It might not be in writing, but in principle, it was agreed to.
00:07:52.340And at least there's stability in capital investments.
00:07:54.680And this is what happens when companies are hesitant to deploy tens of billions of dollars.
00:08:00.480The main thing that these companies are going to do is just like, you know what, we're not going to wait anymore.
00:08:05.060These tariffs right now are going away in the in Canada against Canada.
00:08:08.700We're just going to move production to the U.S.
00:08:10.460That's the single biggest investment Stellantis has done in their history.
00:08:16.140And not only that, I mean, I would love, I might even spend some time this evening looking at all the subsidies and grants that were given, not only to Stellantis, but to Volkswagen and all these other EV companies.
00:08:29.860We were propping up a, what I'll say is a superficial industry.
00:08:37.420And, you know, we were building, you know, when I say we, these large corporations were building plants with, you know, to create 2,000 new jobs.
00:08:45.940But it would have been cheaper giving each person a million dollars than to have this go forward.
00:08:52.620So I think the whole thing has been just an epic disaster.
00:08:56.320And when you look at some of the previous, to your point, EV announcements, I mean, we're talking about up to $15 billion to Stellantis and another firm for this battery plant.
00:09:07.420And yet when it came time to expanding their auto plant, that was retooling for EVs, well, they were looking at Michigan.
00:09:17.720So they're relegating $100 million to the retooling of a plant in Michigan to build EVs, the Jeep EVs.
00:09:26.060I mean, that's a, they could have easily done that in Canada, especially given this prior announcement of $15 billion, up to $15 billion for this EV plant.
00:09:37.820So a lot of people are feeling betrayed by the company, which came out recently and said, oh, no, we've got plans for this plant.
00:09:45.320And as soon as, you know, we talk to the feds about it, we'll let you know what those plans are.
00:09:50.820Well, that tells me that they're looking for more government money.
00:09:53.500If you're saying we're not going to make an announcement until after we talk to your government, that tells me that they're going cap in hand for more tax dollars.
00:11:07.400And we pay for it, not only for the money that gets given to these companies, but by inflation, which is by far the worst possible tax in existence.
00:11:15.760Because once that hits, you don't get that money back.
00:11:19.600This is a one time hit to whatever your net worth is in that moment of time.
00:11:24.200I would much rather pay a higher tax rate than to have the inflation that we're having right now because of this uncontrolled spending.
00:11:31.520It's this unsatiable desire to just spend, spend, spend at the corporate level to companies that really don't need the money.
00:11:39.380And the amount of economic activity that is really being generated in the long run, I have no idea how they could possibly measure that ROI to say this is a great idea.
00:11:49.700All these things require in-depth economic studies.
00:11:54.200And I really question what those studies were that were done to justify the tens of billions of dollars for this industry, not factoring in or considering the risks that are associated with doing so.
00:12:27.320And that's why these companies are losing millions on these EVs, despite the fact that we seem to be pushing headlong into the construction and the manufacturing of these EV products, these batteries.
00:12:40.760But I also want to say that you made a good point earlier about the lack of prioritizing by Carney.
00:12:48.120You know, the fact that he, rather than going to the United States, which is kind of traditional, it's usually the first people you talk to after you become prime minister.
00:12:56.620You know, you always had the sense that he was trying to push away Trump, that he didn't think much of him, that he thought he could do an end run around Trump, make deals with all these other countries.
00:13:09.620And now we have this story here where high-level trade talks between Canada and the United States have resumed in Washington.
00:13:16.300So there's all of a sudden this scramble, it seems, you know, after this announcement.
00:13:20.620I'm sure it was planned before the announcement.
00:13:22.860But all of a sudden they're starting to get nervous.
00:13:25.500Like, maybe we better push, you know, put the pedal to the metal and get a deal with Trump before things get much worse.
00:13:30.660Are you getting the sense that maybe there's some serious nervousness after being somewhat cocky at the start of his time in office, you know, Carney acting like he was the big man on campus?
00:13:43.080Now all of a sudden, uh-oh, we're in trouble.
00:13:45.580We better cut a deal with Trump, you know, ASAP.
00:13:48.200Here's the thing that I've learned about negotiations over time, and this is a course that I loved and probably the best course I've ever taken in my university, in my life ever.
00:14:00.060And I've read several books on it, and the tactic and the strategy of what the Liberals decided to do and what Carney decided to do by basically, let's ignore the bully.
00:14:47.980And by Carney employing this negotiation strategy of ignoring instead of meeting him head on and giving him the things he wanted, there's something that he said very early on before he was officially put in office and replaced Biden.
00:15:07.740And Donald Trump said he wants the Keystone XL.
00:15:12.600I don't know if many people remember this or not, but that's the key thing that he wants.
00:15:17.240If you look at the signals of the things that he's interested in, he wanted Greenland for what?
00:15:22.800And now here we are today talking about, you know, China saying that they're going to hold back those rare earth minerals and Donald Trump saying we're going to implement 100% tariff on China.
00:15:33.580You have to look at what the person wants.
00:15:36.360And if they want energy and we have the third largest supply in the entire world, we feed it to him.
00:16:06.500We will have so much growth because we are an energy superpower that has been artificially deflated by the liberal government.
00:16:14.680And so if you look at what is available to you, Mark Carney, and I said this back in, I think it was April, I said he's going to have a choice to make.
00:16:23.760He's going to either have to abandon his net zero insanity, his insane view of this, and it's going to make the economy suffer and he's going to lose his role as a prime minister, or he's going to build the Keystone XL pipeline and give Donald Trump what he needs.
00:16:42.620And Donald Trump has him where he wants him.
00:16:45.240He was not the person to best negotiate with Donald Trump.
00:16:48.800And in fact, he literally told us when he failed officially, we have the best deal in the world.
00:16:55.420That is the single most insulting thing that I think I've ever heard any prime minister shamelessly say and do.
00:17:02.920When they tell us we're going to be elbows up, we're going to negotiate against them, I'm going to get you the best rate, and then for him to turn around and say we have the best deal in the world, that should be a massive slap in the face of every single Canadian that voted for him and even voted against him.
00:17:19.100It is the most shameless thing any sort of prime minister can do.
00:17:22.440It is the ultimate form of gaslighting.
00:17:24.660And to me, the moment he said that, I realized this guy is no different than Justin Trudeau.
00:17:33.780And it was Biden, I guess, who canceled the Keystone XL pipeline.
00:17:38.440The first day he was in office, he came in and that was it.
00:17:42.180And, you know, it's been a disaster, really.
00:17:44.080So Trump's trying to get that back online.
00:17:46.040But the other thing that Carney said that stands out for me right now in light of everything that's happened with Stellantis is that Canadians are going to be investing, have already invested half a trillion dollars over the last five years in the United States.
00:18:02.060So he's bragging about the fact that Canadian investors, rather than investing in Canada, are moving their money to the United States, you know, as if that's a good thing.
00:18:14.660So in light of that, to look at Stellantis' move now to move its operation south of the border, it's another slap in the face, at least for taxpayers.
00:18:26.800I mean, where does Carney go from here?
00:18:29.780I mean, he promised that there would be a negotiated deal, a victory, you know, a negotiated win over Trump back in, this was supposed to happen back in July, July 21st.
00:18:41.140Here we are in the middle of October, still no deal.
00:18:44.660You know, he's got his A-team down there scrambling to get a deal, and Trump seems to be in no hurry at all, does he?
00:18:51.380I mean, at this point, he's cutting deals with a lot of other countries, including the 27 members of the EU and the UK and Japan, you know, huge players, huge trade players.
00:19:02.180He's cutting all these other deals, and Canada still left, you know, on the sideline.
00:19:10.600And as of this morning, I believe he just raised the tariffs on softwood lumber to 45%.
00:19:16.820So our tariffs, since Mark Carney has been in office, has actually gone up, and Mark Carney turns around and tells us we have the best deal in the world.
00:19:25.420He has, he's being, he's being put into a corner now where he has no choice, and they're going to have to get a deal done soon because it's slowly starting to chip away at us.
00:19:33.160If you look at what he did with Danielle Smith, he just ignored her.
00:19:39.580Danielle Smith was asking, like, release the energy, you know, stop blocking oil, gas, like, let's really start unleashing what we have here in Alberta.
00:19:50.220This is a consistent strategy of what someone does when they don't want to face and tackle the problem head on.
00:19:56.800I think, you know, and I talk to, you know, a lot of, you know, business associate friends and family, a lot of the things that make people very successful is being able to have very uncomfortable and awkward conversations and look at the other person in the eye.
00:20:14.480In fact, they've ignored the bully, waited for, you know, maybe tensions to lower instead of them proactively lowering those tensions and actually working towards a solution.
00:20:24.500You can't ignore the monster that's underneath the bed.
00:20:28.700The monster is there and you have to tackle it head on and you have to figure out a way to actually deal with it.
00:20:35.320And, you know, the way we deal with it is literally energy.
00:20:38.420That is the one card that we have that we ultimately have to play.
00:20:44.440He really is going to have no choice because our automotive sector and our automotive industry and our film industry, which employs, I think, the arts and media is over 175,000 people.
00:20:55.160Plus in Canada, that's been decimated in Ontario and BC.
00:20:59.520Ontario is going to experience some pretty big job losses, not just from the auto sector, but also from the media and arts sector as well.
00:21:10.780And again, it's just been ignored away.
00:21:12.760And so he's going to have to he's going to have to tackle it because the one thing that I've realized that the Liberal Party cares more about is polling and staying in power.
00:21:22.780And so if the polling goes bad, if people are starting to reach out and they're really starting to get ticked like, hey, you're literally not doing anything.
00:21:48.520And of course, they've got a budget to table a few weeks from now that's potentially going to have a deficit of 65, anywhere from 65 to 100 billion dollars, depending on who you talk to.
00:22:01.060But there is one other story that I want to ask you about.
00:22:23.320And apparently the analysts, and I have to say apparently because this is directly from an extremely reliable source, is what I will say.
00:22:32.700And they told me that an analyst, a liberal analyst who is actually working on the gun buyback program, all the analysts have received an email.
00:22:43.180And that email basically said that this program is ultimately going to be shut down.
00:22:47.820And it completely makes sense because it was an indefensible program in the first place.
00:22:54.500And again, I really do believe that the momentum has shifted against them.
00:23:00.020And people started talking and speaking up and saying, why are you spending a billion of our dollars taking firearms from people who aren't committing crimes, from law-abiding citizens who literally have their license?
00:23:12.380When nearly 90%, and this is a direct number from the Toronto Police Association, I believe it was in 2024, they said 88% to be exact, of the firearms confiscated in crimes came from the U.S.
00:24:14.060Because if the provincial police won't get involved, and they're not going to be knocking on people's doors and saying, hey, you have this firearm, you're supposed to give it in.
00:24:23.360We're going to charge you, and we're going to, what, arrest you and take it away from you?
00:24:29.680And so I think there's going to be such a strong pushback that the amount of charges that they will lay across Canada, I think, will be massive.
00:24:36.520And it will literally put an end to the Liberal Party.
00:24:40.400I think this would be a disastrous program for them.