Ontario Premier Doug Ford arrives for a primary ministers assembly in Ottawa on Jan.15. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press by way of AP)
[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.]
Ontario’s premier stated his authorities is ending its contract with Starlink, the Elon Musk-controlled satellite tv for pc firm, following President Donald Trump’s government order to impose tariffs on items imported from Canada.
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario received’t do enterprise with individuals hellbent on destroying our economic system,” Premier Doug Ford stated in an emailed assertion.
The federal government additionally will ban U.S. firms from provincial contracts till the tariffs are eliminated, and Ford urged cities and different native governments to do the identical at an occasion in Toronto on Feb. 3.
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, stated in November it had signed Starlink to launch a program providing high-speed satellite tv for pc web entry to rural and distant communities, starting in June 2025. The Starlink deal was price almost C$100 million ($68.3 million), with the province to pay for set up and gear charges, a member of Ford’s authorities stated on the time.
Beginning right this moment and till U.S. tariffs are eliminated, Ontario is banning American firms from provincial contracts.
Yearly, the Ontario authorities and its businesses spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to construct Ontario. U.S.-based companies will…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 3, 2025
Ford informed reporters he believed Ontario would prevail in any court docket problem concerning the contract as a result of the U.S. violated the phrases of the North American commerce deal when Trump introduced the tariffs.
“I don’t care if there’s a effective or no matter, however I feel we’re going to win it,” Ford stated of any potential problem. Starlink didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Ford’s transfer follows different retaliatory measures taken by Canadian leaders after Trump launched a commerce broadside in opposition to Canada, Mexico and China on Feb. 1, placing tariffs on their items. The president’s order locations 25% levies on virtually every little thing the U.S. imports from Canada, besides power, for which the tariff is 10%, beginning Feb. 4.
A number of provinces, together with Ontario and Quebec, are eradicating U.S. merchandise from liquor shops they management. Quebec will start including a 25% levy on all U.S. bids for its public contracts, the province’s economic system minister, Christine Frechette, informed Radio-Canada.
In Ottawa, authorities employees gave extra particulars Feb. 2 on how Canada will usher in 25% counter-tariffs in opposition to greater than 1,200 classes of U.S. merchandise inside days.
The primary part will contact about C$30 billion of products from U.S. exporters, together with orange juice, peanut butter, wine, espresso, bikes and cosmetics. A a lot bigger checklist of U.S.-manufactured merchandise — automobiles and vans, metal, aluminum, beef and boats, amongst different gadgets — can be topic to tariffs later in February after a 21-day session interval.
Ford reiterated Feb. 3 that curbing power exports to the U.S. stays a “instrument in our toolbox” however that he hoped it might be pointless. The electrical energy sector in Canada is managed by the provinces and a few of them, together with Ontario, export energy to the U.S.
Non-public firms have additionally begun feeling the results of the tariff battle. Irving Oil Ltd., a refiner primarily based within the japanese Canadian province of New Brunswick, is notifying some prospects in New Hampshire that the price of the tariffs can be added to their propane costs as soon as they go into impact, Bloomberg reported.
If the commerce battle continues, Canada is prone to face essentially the most extreme financial shock for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic and can in all probability sink right into a recession, prime economists say.
