Ontario Premier Doug Ford is cancelling a $100-million contract his government made with Elon Musk’s Starlink and is banning American companies from dealing with the provincial government amid an escalating Canada-US tariff war.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced 10-per-cent tariffs on energy and 25-per-cent tariffs on all other Canadian exports Saturday, citing the need for Canada to balance alleged trade deficits and secure its border from illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
Ford announced that he was banning his government from dealing with Elon Musk, a Trump campaign advisor and the current head of the new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), on Monday.
“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 said in the statement. “Canada didn’t start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win it.”
He said he was cancelling the contract with Musk’s company Starlink, a global satellite network that provides internet access, as “Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy.”
Last November, Ford announced his government had signed a $100-million deal with Starlink, which he said would “bring high-speed internet to 15,000 more homes and businesses in remote areas across Ontario.”
The federal Liberal government finalized a $2.14-billion deal with a Quebec-based alternative satellite internet provider, Telesat, but the company reports it will only have internet operational globally by 2027, with its first satellites launching in 2026.
Another of Musk’s companies, SpaceX, is slated to launch the satellites for Telesat in 2026.
Bonnie Crombie, the Leader of Ontario’s Liberals and Ford’s competitor in the ongoing Ontario election, has been calling for Ford to cancel his contracts with Musk since just after Trump’s inauguration.
In a post celebrating Ford’s move to “finally” cancel the contract, Crombie said the deal should never have been made in the first place. In a previous statement released by the Ontario Liberal’s on Jan. 22, Crombie accused Ford of not being able to stand up to Trump if he couldn’t cut ties with Musk.
