Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is terminating Ontario’s nearly $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink in response to new U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods, he announced Monday.
The contract, signed in November, aimed to provide high-speed satellite internet to 15,000 rural, remote, and northern homes and businesses by June 2025.
“Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ford stated.
He further declared a ban on American companies from securing provincial contracts until the tariffs are lifted.
“U.S.-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in new revenues. They only have President Trump to blame,” Ford added.
On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian goods and a 10% tariff on Canadian energy products.
Musk, serving as an adviser to Trump, is overseeing the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in collaboration with the administration.
Ford has faced scrutiny over the Starlink contract, with Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie urging him to cancel it last week.
“If he were serious about standing up to Trump, he would cancel his sweetheart deal with Elon Musk,” Crombie previously said.
Ford defended the contract, emphasizing its transparency and alignment with Ontario’s high-speed internet expansion plans.
According to a January 2024 Infrastructure Ontario release, only two satellite internet providers met the province’s needs: Musk’s SpaceX-operated Starlink and Canadian-based Xplore Inc. Following a bidding process, Starlink secured the contract.
A December 2023 report from the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project indicated that Starlink surpassed Xplore Inc.’s Xplornet as Canada’s top rural satellite internet provider in 2022. By 2024, Starlink had approximately 400,000 Canadian subscribers.
Source: Swifteradio.com
