OTTAWA--Canada's Industry Minister Melanie Joly reiterated Friday that Stellantis could be on the hook for hundreds of millions in repayments to the government unless the company's factory near Toronto resumes auto production.

The plant, in Brampton, Ontario, has been idle since 2024, and Stelantis is in advanced talks to sell that factory to a Canadian armored-car maker.

"That plant needs to reopen. We need a new model. If not we'll get our money back," said Joly, who has threatened to sue Stellantis to recoup cash that lawmakers gave the car maker to retool its factories in Brampton and Windsor, Ontario.

The potential sale of the Stellantis factory has soured labor talks between the company and Unifor, the union representing 9,000 of the automaker's workers in Canada. Unifor has declared the talks at an impasse, and president Lana Payne has warned of a strike in the coming weeks unless Stellantis abandons its planned divestment.

Stellantis last year said it would shift production of its Jeep Compass model from Brampton to Illinois, citing trade and market conditions. The U.S. imposes a 25% tariff on cars assembled in Canada, Mexico and elsewhere abroad. The Canadian government, alongside regional authorities, had provided roughly $710 million to Stellantis to help with plant reconfiguration, conditional on the company meeting certain production and employment thresholds.

Stellantis said this week it pursued options about the return of auto production to Brampton, but discovered the scenarios were financially unfeasible. The sale of the factory to the defense company, Roshel, provides the most credible path for production to resume and create employment, the automaker added.

Joly said government officials played no role in matching Stellantis and Roshel.