Ontario confirms Starlink deal dead, won't reveal cost of ending contract
Ontario Minister of Energy and Mines, Stephen Lecce, whose department was overseeing the contract, confirmed on Wednesday that talks to end it had finished and that the province was now aiming to find a Canadian company to replace Starlink. He declined to say how much the cancellation cost.
Speaking to reporters at an unrelated event in Toronto and asked whether taxpayers had a right to know how their money was being spent, Mr. Lecce replied: 'I can confirm that the Premier has fulfilled his word, which is to cancel that contract because of the very reasons he cited.'
Back in February, as U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up his tariff threats, Mr. Ford – after at first declining to kill the deal – vowed that he would scrap a contract with Starlink signed late last year to provide additional Internet access to 15,000 homes in remote parts of the province, including First Nations communities.
The Premier said he did not want to do business with Mr. Musk, who was then a prominent ally of the U.S. President and whom Mr. Ford accused of being 'hell-bent on destroying our economy.'
As the size of Mr. Trump's tariff threats wavered, Mr. Ford put off the cancellation but later confirmed he was going ahead, along with other measures to limit the use of U.S. companies in Ontario's government procurement and to toss American booze off liquor store shelves. Mr. Ford said in March he did not know how big a penalty or 'kill fee' Ontario would have to pay Starlink.
A senior government source acknowledged on Wednesday that there is a kill fee negotiated between the parties but said it is covered by a confidentiality clause. The source said the amount is substantially lower than the total value the contract. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal.
The source also confirmed that the government had contemplated passing legislation that would have retroactively undone the contract and erased any obligation to pay Starlink, but it was deemed unnecessary as the parties were able to come to a deal. Seen by the business world as a drastic step, it's a tactic Mr. Ford's Progressive Conservatives also contemplated, but did not end up using, in their talks to end the monopoly of the brewery-owned Beer Store chain.
Opinion: Canada must plan for life without Elon Musk's Starlink
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in e-mailed statement that the deal should have been cancelled long ago – and that the Premier should have already made arrangements with another provider to ensure Internet access in rural and Northern areas.
'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,' Ms. Stiles said. 'Months have passed and we still don't have a plan or even a process that's calling for home-grown solutions.'
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie also said it took the government too long to kill the deal – and said Ontarians needed to know how much it cost them.
'We deserve to know how much getting out of this bad deal cost taxpayers. We deserve to know why Doug Ford chose to do business with Elon Musk – someone who, at the time, was actively helping Donald Trump on his path back to the presidency – when Canadian alternatives were on the table,' Ms. Crombie said. 'Doug Ford doesn't get to play the hero for finally doing what we've been telling him to do for seven months.'
When Mr. Ford first threatened to pull the contract in February, Mr. Musk himself issued a muted response on his social-media website X: 'Oh well.'
The world's richest man and founder of electric-vehicle maker Tesla has since fallen out and publicly feuded with the U.S. President.
But back when Mr. Ford vowed to kill the Starlink deal, he was fresh from performing a gesture that looked like a Nazi salute at Mr. Trump's post-inauguration event, and weighing in to support Germany's leading far-right political party, as well being Mr. Trump's hand-picked government cost-cutting czar and launching a blitz that mass-fired key civil servants and shut down U.S. foreign aid.
A copy of the Ontario contract, which was signed with a subsidiary of Starlink's parent company called SpaceX Canada Corp., was obtained by The Globe via a freedom-of-information request. But the redacted document does not include details about the kill fee.
Starlink already provides satellite Internet in Ontario outside of this program, and this service is unaffected. Last November, Mr. Ford's government trumpeted the $92-million Starlink deal as a key part of is $4-billion plan to bring high-speed Internet access to every corner of the province.
The new added service was to have been up and running by June, with the province's money covering equipment and installation costs, but not monthly fees, for those in the remotest areas of the province. Part the cancelled Starlink plan involved training and employment opportunities for Indigenous communities.
The contract was awarded after a competitive procurement that saw Starlink beat out another shortlisted firm, Markham, Ont.-based Xplore Inc.
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