Ontario’s payout over the cancelled Starlink contract will remain secret, according to The Canadian Press. While both sides agreed to keep the settlement confidential, Ontario said that the cost to kill the fee was significantly less than the $100 million contract value.
While Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would confirm the fee earlier this week when asked, his office stated that the amount could not be discussed publicly. Despite the fee, Ford stands by his choice to kill the deal. “I believe that was the right decision, protecting Canadians, not supporting a U.S.-led owner that was pretty aggressive towards Canada,” he said on Tuesday.
On March 4, 2025, Doug Ford announced that Ontario would no longer work with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
“As part of this government-wide procurement ban, we’re going one step further. We’re ripping up Ontario’s contract with Starlink. It’s done, it’s gone. We won’t award contracts to people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our country,” said Ford at his press conference.
Ontario and SpaceX signed a deal in late 2024 to connect 15,000 Ontario residents to Starlink to deliver high-speed internet. When U.S. President Donald Trump started tariffing Canada, Ford cancelled the deal due to Musk’s proximity to Trump. When Ford announced the cancellation, Musk replied on X, saying, “cool.”
Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s tariffs were illegal. In response, the administration announced investigations into various trading partners (but not Canada) in an attempt to establish new tariffs.
Source: The Canadian Press
