Ontario officially cancels $100M contract with Elon Musk's Starlink, won't say cost to taxpayers
Article content
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, Starlink's parent company.
Article content
'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 press conference.
Article content
Article content
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma announced the deal last year to deliver high-speed internet to 15,000 residents in rural and northern Ontario.
Article content
Article content
It would have also included Starlink access for remote First Nations, after a promising test run in 2020 in Pinkangikum First Nation saw high-speed internet working within 15 minutes of hardware delivery.
Article content
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.
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
'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.'
Article content
Article content
Musk supported Trump's bid to become president and was brought into Trump's inner circle after his inauguration in January.
Article content
Not long after that, Musk glommed on to Trump's threats to annex Canada.
Article content
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.
Article content
Musk and Trump have since fallen out of favour with one another.
Article content
Ford's cancellation of the deal came as part of a suite of measures in retaliation to Trump's tariffs.
Article content
He pulled American booze off the shelves of Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores in March and has said the U.S. booze ban will be kept in place until Trump removes his tariffs on Canada.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Senate heads home with no deal to speed confirmations as irate Trump tells Schumer to ‘go to hell'
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is leaving Washington Saturday night for its monthlong August recess without a deal to advance dozens of President Donald Trump's nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and Trump posting on social media that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can 'GO TO HELL!' Without a deal in hand, Republicans say they may try to change Senate rules when they return in September to speed up the pace of confirmations. Trump has been pressuring senators to move quickly as Democrats blocked more nominees than usual this year, denying any fast unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one, a lengthy process that can take several days per nominee.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Trump tells Schumer to ‘go to hell' as U.S. Senate attempts to strike deal on nominees fail
Hours after U.S. President Donald Trump told Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to 'go to hell' in a Saturday post on social media, the Senate was poised to head into recess following failed attempts to reach a deal over confirming Trump's nominees. Senate Republican leader John Thune, Schumer and the White House had been engaged in a round of intense talks to end the standoff so senators could return to their home states, sources briefed on the conversations told CNN. Schumer had requested federal funds be released and that Trump agree not to push another legislative package that would slash federal funding, sources told CNN. But, on social media, Trump called Schumer's demands 'egregious and unprecedented,' a sign that talks had collapsed. Trump had wanted the Senate to confirm his nominees even if that meant skipping the August recess. On the Senate floor Saturday night, Thune asked for unanimous consent for the chamber to vote on a handful of nominations and then break for a month. Democrats had been slow-walking Trump's lower-level nominees, forcing Thune to keep the Senate in session this weekend to confirm them. In the minority, Democrats have the power to force Thune to jump over time-consuming hurdles before they can vote. Schumer made several demands to agree to let a batch of nominations be quickly confirmed by the Senate, according to the sources. The demands included the unfreezing of federal funds for an array of programs, including the National Institutes of Health and foreign aid. Schumer also wanted Trump to agree that he won't attempt to push through another package to slash federal funding known as 'rescissions' — after a US$9 billion package to codify some cuts was approved earlier this summer. 'Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!' Trump wrote Saturday. 'Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country. Have a great RECESS.'
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Senate heads home with no deal to speed confirmations as irate Trump tells Schumer to ‘go to hell'
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is leaving Washington Saturday night for its monthlong August recess without a deal to advance dozens of President Donald Trump's nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and Trump posting on social media that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can 'GO TO HELL!' Without a deal in hand, Republicans say they may try to change Senate rules when they return in September to speed up the pace of confirmations. Trump has been pressuring senators to move quickly as Democrats blocked more nominees than usual this year, denying any fast unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one, a lengthy process that can take several days per nominee. 'I think they're desperately in need of change,' Senate Majority Leader John Thune said of Senate rules Saturday after negotiations with Schumer and Trump broke down. 'I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.' The latest standoff comes as Democrats and Republicans have gradually escalated their obstruction of the other party's executive branch and judicial nominees over the last two decades, and as Senate leaders have incrementally changed Senate rules to speed up confirmations — and make them less bipartisan. In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's judicial picks. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump's nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch. Trump has been pressuring Senate Republicans for weeks to cancel the August recess and grind through dozens of his nominations as Democrats have slowed the process. But Republicans hoped to make a deal with Democrats instead, and came close several times over the last few days as the two parties and the White House negotiated over moving a large tranche of nominees in exchange for reversing some of the Trump administration's spending cuts on foreign aid, among other issues. But it was clear that there would be no agreement when Trump attacked Schumer on social media Saturday evening and told them to pack it up and go home. 'Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!' Trump posted on Truth Social. 'Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country.' Thune said afterward that there were 'several different times' when the two sides thought they had a deal, but in the end 'we didn't close it out.' It's the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn't allowed at least some quick confirmations. Thune has already kept the Senate in session for more days, and with longer hours, this year to try and confirm as many of Trump's nominees as possible. But Democrats had little desire to give in without the spending cut reversals or some other incentive, even though they too were eager to skip town after several long months of work and bitter partisan fights over legislation. 'We have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as we have right now,' Schumer said Saturday.
