Mr. Ford, Exit Starlink -Agreement with Elon Musk

Ontario’s Doug Ford showed some welcome Moxie last week when he said his province would cancel a $ 92 million contract with Starlink, a satellite internet provider owned by Elon Musk, in return against US customs on Canadian goods.

“Ontario will not do business with people hell to ruin our finances,” he said, a reference to the fact that Mr. Musk is deeply involved in the Trump administration and, as he put it, President Donald Trump’s “Buddy is. “

A few hours later, when the United States supported the introductory duty rates immediately, Mr. Ford A break on the Starlink Annullation as well as on his plans to remove US-made booze from the province’s spirits and ban American companies from offering provincial contracts.

This is now raising the prospect of Mr. Ford will need to revive the Starlink contract if the United States decides to enclose customs duties at the end of his 30-day reprieve or, as US President Trump did over the weekend, put targeted charges on Canadian steel and aluminum.

It also throws a focus on a contract that raised questions when it was first announced in November and which now raises many more in the light of Mr. Musk’s unpleasant proximity to the Trumpic version of American power.

When all factors are weighed together, the sensible thing for Mr. Ford to do that the deal with Starlink once and for all and move on.

For starters, Mr. Trump that he will impose 25 percent duty on Canadian steel and aluminum. These completely unjustified tariffs will hit Ontario especially hard. Should we now see Mr. Ford in return with another cancellation of the Starlink Agreement? Mr. Trump’s unpredictable and harmful behavior is reason enough to cancel it for good.

In addition, there are the enduring questions about the three-year-olds itself, $ 92 million. Starlink won the contract through a competitive bid process.

If it remains in place, the company will deliver high -speed internet access to 15,000 “premises” in northern Ontario and other remote areas not operated by a land -based ISP starting in June.

Ontario government officials have told the globe that the majority of the cost of the agreement is a payment to Starlink in exchange for the one who reserves capacity on his satellites so that its new Ontario customers are guaranteed service regardless of worldwide demand for his network.

Given that the normal cost of each dish bowl, each premise must have to install to receive Starlink Internet Service is $ 600, tax and shipping included, which means Ontario pays as much as $ 80 million over three years For Starlink just to make sure it delivers what it sells.

Ontario claims that Starlink is the only operator who has the capacity to launch his own low-earth-orbit satellite system, giving it an advantage over competitors. In fact, it is true that Starlink has changed the game in satellite internet service and that it has the market for the most part for itself at the moment.

But Ontario also signed a five-year deal in 2021 worth $ 108 million with telesat, a publicly owned Canadian company, to invest in Leo satellites to serve remote areas. And last year, the federal government borrowed telesat $ 2.14 billion over 15 years to finance the construction of LEO satellites. Quebec also beat in a $ 400 million loan.

In that light, the Starlink Agreement is a little more than an expensive stop-gap, possibly motivated by Mr. Ford’s early election calls until the LEO Telesat network begins service in 2027. It is not crucial for the long-term goal to expand high-speed internet service to remote parts of Canada, a fact confirmed by Ontario’s willingness to cancel the contract.

Finally, there is the question of Mr. Musk’s devotion to Mr. Trump. High-speed Internet Service in northern Ontario and other parts of northern Canada will be critical of this country’s national security. While Mr. Musk is welcome to sell his Starlink service to individuals (the company says it has 400,000 customers in Canada), it makes no sense to have a close political ally and charity of Mercurial Mr. Trump in control of a system that provides the Internet service that would be used by the government, business and members of the military.

Add it all up and the only decision that the Ford government can make is the same as it hardly did a week ago: put an end to the Starlink Agreement, but this time makes it permanent.