U.S. companies also banned from provincial contracts until Trump’s tariffs lifted
Ontario’s premier said his government is ending its contract with Starlink, the Elon Musk-controlled satellite company, following United States President Donald Trump’s executive order to impose tariffs on goods imported from Canada.
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Premier Doug Ford said in an emailed statement.
The government also will ban U.S. companies from provincial contracts until the tariffs are removed, Ford said.
Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy
Ontario Premier Doug Ford
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said in November it had signed Starlink to launch a program offering high-speed satellite internet access to rural and remote communities, beginning in June 2025. The Starlink deal was worth nearly $100 million, with the province to pay for installation and equipment fees, a member of Ford’s government said at the time.
Ford’s move follows other retaliatory measures taken by Canadian leaders after Trump launched a trade broadside against Canada, Mexico and China on Saturday, putting tariffs on their goods. His order places 25 per cent levies on almost everything the U.S. imports from Canada, except energy, for which the tariff is 10 per cent, starting Tuesday.
Several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, are removing U.S. products from liquor stores they control. In Ottawa, government staff gave more details Sunday on how Canada will bring in 25 per cent counter-tariffs against more than 1,200 categories of U.S. products within days.
Private companies have also begun feeling the effects of the tariff war. Irving Oil Ltd., a refiner based in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick, is notifying some customers in New Hampshire that the cost of the tariffs will be added to their propane prices once they go into effect, Bloomberg reported.
If the trade war continues, Canada is likely to face the most severe economic shock since the COVID-19 pandemic and will probably sink into a recession, top economists say.