Ontario will rip up a $100-million contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to deliver high-speed internet to remote areas, as part of the province’s response to U.S. tariffs, Premier Doug Ford has announced.
Ford, who is also in the middle of campaigning as Progressive Conservative leader in a $189-million snap election he called last week, made the announcement Monday morning.
“I’m not going to support someone that is hellbent on destroying our province, destroying people’s families, taking jobs away from them,” Ford said at a campaign announcement a couple of hours after issuing a statement on Starlink as premier.
“We’re done with that. We never started this fight whatsoever, but we’re going to win this fight.”
The deal was set to bring SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet system to 15,000 premises in rural and northern Ontario.
Ford also announced that Ontario will ban all American companies from provincial contracts until U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods are removed.
“Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement,” he wrote.
“U.S.-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in new revenues. They only have President Trump to blame.”
However, Ford said he would not be cancelling a deal with Staples to move nine ServiceOntario locations into their stores, saying the company has a Canadian headquarters in Ontario.
“So they’re employing thousands of people, they’re buying thousands of products,” he said. “You can’t compare apples and oranges.”
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie has been calling for weeks for Ford to cancel the Starlink deal, and she said she is glad it is finally happening.
“But let’s be clear: this contract never should have been signed in the first place,” she wrote in a statement. “Just another backtrack by Doug on his backward priorities.”
NDP Leader Marit Stiles agreed and said paying an astronomical price per customer always seemed odd.
“I could never understand why he was willing to pay so much more than a regular connection to Starlink,” she said at a press conference in Oshawa, Ont.
“That deal always smelled funny to me, honestly … I think we can get a better deal with a Canadian company to supply and connect so many people in this province, and we can do it fast.”
When she was infrastructure minister, Kinga Surma said the deal also included a customer service line, installation and engagement with First Nation communities.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders Saturday to hit Canada with damaging duties of 10 per cent on energy and 25 per cent on everything else beginning on Tuesday, and Ottawa has responded with a slate of planned retaliatory tariffs.
Ford also announced over the weekend — as premier — that he directed the Liquor Control Board of Ontario to remove American products from its shelves.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2025.
