Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is “ripping up” Ontario’s nearly $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink in the wake of U.S. tariffs on virtually all Canadian goods, he said in a statement Monday.
The contract, signed in November, was meant to provide high-speed internet access through Starlink’s satellite service to 15,000 eligible homes and businesses in rural, remote and northern communities by June of this year.
“Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ford said in the statement.
Ford said Ontario will ban American companies from provincial contracts until U.S. tariffs are removed.
“U.S.-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in new revenues. They only have President Trump to blame,” he said.
On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on virtually all goods from Canada and a lower 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy products
Musk, an adviser to Trump, is overseeing the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in co-operation with the president’s administration.
Premier Doug Ford is pulling American booze from the shelves at LCBO stores as of Tuesday in response to U.S. tariffs. But as CBC’s Britnei Bilhete explains, some say the move is an overreaction.
Ford has faced criticism for the contract, with Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie calling on him to end the deal last week.
“If he were serious about standing up to Trump, he would cancel his sweetheart deal with Elon Musk,” Crombie previously said in a news release.
Ford defended the contract at the time, saying there was a transparent bidding process and it was part of the government’s plan to get everyone in the province high-speed internet.
Starlink growing quickly in Canada
According to a news release from Infrastructure Ontario in January 2024, only two satellite internet service providers could meet the province’s needs.
Those were Musk’s SpaceX, which runs Starlink, and Xplore Inc., a rural internet service provider founded in Canada. Both providers were invited to participate in a bidding process, the release said, with SpaceX ultimately winning out.
Starlink surpassed Xplornet, operated by Xplore Inc., as the leading satellite-based provider of rural and remote internet access service in Canada in 2022, according to a report by the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project in December.
As of 2024, Starlink has around 400,000 subscribers in Canada, the report said.
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