Ontario has officially cancelled its $100-million contract with Starlink, but the province refuses to say how much it cost taxpayers to get out of the deal.
Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce did not answer numerous questions Wednesday about the kill fee the province will have to pay Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“I can confirm we’ve cancelled the contract at this point, and we look forward to bringing forth alternatives to the people of Ontario so we can get people connected,” Lecce said at an unrelated news conference.
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma announced the deal last year to deliver high-speed internet to 15,000 residents in rural and northern Ontario.
The deal, which was set to go live in June, would have covered hardware and installation costs but not monthly fees.
It would have also included Starlink access for remote First Nations, after a promising test run in 2020 in Pikangikum First Nation saw high-speed internet working within 15 minutes of hardware delivery.
SpaceX won the contract after a “robust and transparent and competitive and fair technical and financial evaluation of multiple qualified parties,” Michael Lindsay, the former CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, said last year.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to cancel the contract in February if U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods were imposed. He killed the deal in March when U.S. President Donald Trump moved ahead with tariffs.
“It’s done, it’s gone,” Ford said at the time. “We won’t award contracts to people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our province … and our country.”
Musk supported Trump’s bid to become president and was brought into Trump’s inner circle after his inauguration in January.
Not long after that, Musk glommed on to Trump’s threats to annex Canada.
In February, a petition signed by several hundred thousand Canadians demanded the federal government remove Musk’s Canadian citizenship. Musk became a Canadian citizen because his mother was born in Canada.
“Canada is not a real country,” Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, at the time.
Musk and Trump have since fallen out of favour with one another.
Ford’s cancellation of the deal came as part of a suite of measures in retaliation to Trump’s tariffs.
He pulled American booze off the shelves of LCBO stores in March and has said the U.S. booze ban will be kept in place until Trump removes his tariffs on Canada.
Ford also banned American companies from bidding on $30 billion worth of procurement contracts the province awards each year.
He also banned U.S. companies from bidding on contracts related to his $200-billion infrastructure plan to build highways, tunnels, transit, hospitals, and jails.
Ontario plans to rip up Starlink deal, tax electricity in response to Trump’s tariffs
“We are standing up for Canada,” Lecce said Wednesday.
Ford should have secured an internet deal by now for those in northern and rural Ontario, said New Democrat and Official Opposition Leader Marit Stiles.
“What is the premier’s plan to deliver on this promise to Ontarians? Handing over hard-earned tax dollars to Elon Musk’s company was never the right approach,” she said. “Months have passed and we still don’t have a plan or even a process that’s calling for home-grown solutions.”
