As Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly is the architect of the Carney administration’s domestic economic strategy. A core component of that strategy requires navigating the transition of Canada’s automotive manufacturing sector. However, 2026 saw Joly become entangled in bitter, highly public disputes with major automakers, most notably Stellantis, over production shifts and subsidy demands.
Rather than quietly managing corporate partnerships behind closed doors, the disputes spilled out into the open, causing deep uncertainty in manufacturing hubs across Ontario. This industrial friction occurred at the exact same time the administration controversially scrapped the 2026 EV Availability Standard. Joly was left trying to defend a chaotic, contradictory industrial policy that simultaneously surrendered environmental goals to the auto lobby while aggressively feuding with those same automakers over production commitments.