NewzTORONTO - Ontario ministers defended keeping secret the province's payout to Elon Musk's SpaceX over a cancelled Starlink contract, as critics accused the government of obfuscation during the recent release of its latest financial statements. Several of Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet members said the government had the public’s backing to kill the $100-million satellite broadband internet deal last year, and revealing the kill fee would give away the province’s competitive advantage. In late 2024, then-infrastructure minister Kinga Surma announced the deal with SpaceX to deliver Starlink internet to 15,000 customers, largely in remote First Nations and rural Ontario.
The deal, hailed by Ford and Musk himself, was set to go live in June 2025. But not long after the announcement, Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency and soon started musing about making Canada the 51st state through economic force.
Musk, who was then part of Trump’s inner circle, joined the commentary on Canada’s sovereignty and in February 2025 said, “Canada is not a real country.” Around the same time, Ford called a snap election that gave him a convincing win and a third term in office. During the election campaign, he said he would kill the Starlink deal should Trump follow through on his tariff threats. Ford made good on that promise when Trump launched the first volley of tariffs against Canada, in addition to taking U.S.
booze off Ontario store shelves and banning U.S. firms from bidding on provincial government contracts. Several months later, Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce, who took over the broadband responsibility from Surma, announced the deal was dead, but refused to reveal the contract’s kill fee.
The Canadian Press revealed in March that the kill fee would remain a secret after the province and SpaceX negotiated a confidential settlement. The province has said the kill fee is “significantly less than the contract value.” SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. When the province released last week its public accounts, an accounting of everything spent between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026, there was no mention of SpaceX or Starlink in the audited statements.
Surma, who is now president of the Treasury Board, was asked about the SpaceX payout at a news conference about the province’s financial statements. “Look, the taxpayers were clear in the election that they …
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