The progressive conservative leader Doug Ford is stopping all retaliation measures in response to US tariffs after President Donald Trump decided to delay taxaries in all Canadian imports for 30 days.
These measures include Ford promise to destroy the contract of almost $ 100 million ontarium with Starlink from Elon Musk, confirmed a spokesman.
On Sunday, Ford ordered the Ontario Liquor Control Board (LCBO) to strip its American products shelves in response to rates, which would be supposed to begin on Tuesday.
“If President Trump proceeds with tariffs, we will not hesitate to eliminate American products from LCBO or prohibit US companies from provincial acquisitions,” Ford said in a statement on Monday afternoon.
Early in the day, Ontario PCS had announced a suite a measure to help the inhabitants of ontives affected by tariff millions in cash flow support.
They had also promised that Ontario would not allow US companies to offer for provincial contracts until the tariffs were lifted.
Hours before the tariffs began, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that on Monday Trump will wait for tariff collection in Canada for at least 30 days after Canada promised to improve security along the border.
This is a last minute news. Below is an earlier version.
The progressive conservative leader, Doug Ford, is “tearing” the contract of almost $ 100 million ontario with Starlink of Elon Musk following the American tariffs on practically all Canadian goods, he said in a statement on Monday.
The contract, signed in November, was destined to provide high -speed Internet access through the Starlink satellite service to 15,000 households eligible in rural, remote and northern communities for June of this year.
Musk is “part of Trump’s team that wants to destroy families, income, destroy business,” Ford said at a press conference in Etobicoke on Monday.
“He wants to get food from people’s table, working people, and I’m not going to tolerate them.”
Musk responded to the announcement of Ford in X, previously Twitter, a platform that it has.
“Oh, well,” he wrote.
Ford said the province and its agencies spend $ 30 billion each year on acquisitions. Ontario will prohibit US companies from provincial contracts until US tariffs are eliminated, he said.
“Companies based in the United States will now lose tens of billions of dollars in new income. They just have to blame President Trump,” he said in the statement.
On Saturday, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, imposed 25 percent tariff
Musk, Trump advisor, supervises the Efficiency Department of the United States Government (Doge) in cooperation with the president’s administration.
Speaking in Metro Morning, Conquest Manager Steel de Toronto says that local manufacturers need government support to protect jobs as US contracts withdraw.
Ford has faced criticism for the contract, with the liberal leader of Ontario, Bonnie Crombie, asking him to end the agreement last week.
“If the confrontation with Trump was taken seriously, he would cancel his love with Elon Musk,” Crombie said previously in a press release.
Ford defended the contract at that time, saying that there was a transparent bidding process and that it was part of the government’s plan so that all in the high -speed Internet province.
Speaking in Etobicoke on Monday, he said that the province has not yet “paid a penny” for the contract.
As for the possible sanctions for violating the contract, Ford said: “I think we have a very, very good case if you go to court.”
It is not clear how much it will cost for the province to leave the deal.
But an expert said there could be financial sanctions.
“I do not know the contract and its details, but I suppose there is, and the richest man in the world will flex all his muscles to make this contract,” said Andreas Schotter, professor of Ivey Business School at Western University University. In London, Ontario.
“But I think it’s a good sign that we are prepared to do whatever it is necessary.”
Starlink grows rapidly in Canada
According to an Ontario infrastructure press release in January 2024, only two satellite internet service providers could meet the needs of the province.
Those were Musk’s Spacex, which is directed by Starlink, and Xplore Inc., a rural internet service provider founded in Canada and owned by Stonepeak, an American investment firm. Both suppliers were invited to participate in a bidding process, according to the statement, with Spacex finally winning.
Dennis Darby, president of Canadian manufacturers and exporters, discusses what steps the provincial and federal governments need to support Ontario manufacturers in the midst of a trade war in Canada in the United States.
Starlink surpassed Xplornet, operated by Xplore Inc., as the main supplier of rural and remote internet access service based on a satellite in Canada in 2022, according to a report of the Global Media and Internet concentration project in December.
From 2024, Starlink has around 400,000 subscribers in Canada, according to the report.
Speaking on Monday, Ford did not appoint Xplore Inc., but said: “The Canadian company did not have the infrastructure ready after it investigated it … they could not do it for another two years.”
“So we are going to wait two more years to 15,000 people in the extreme north,” he said.
The head of an economic growth corporation focused on expanding broadband access in northern Ontario said it was not surprised by the measure.
“It really faces a thug,” said Susan Church, executive director of Blue Sky Economic Growth Corporation in North Bay.
Church said he believes that the province can find other options to bring high -speed internet to rural communities in northern Ontario.
“I think we should not react to this news with fear because I think there are many other possible solutions that we are going to see that it comes out in the coming months,” he said.
Party leaders react
The leader of the Green Party, Mike Schreiner, liberal leader Bonnie Crombie and NDP leader Marit Stiles said that the province’s contact with Starlink was a bad business since the first day.
“Why Doug Ford thought it was a good idea to make a unique contract with Elon Musk and Starlink does not make absolutely any meaning to me,” Schreiner said in Kitchener on Monday.
He said he was happy with reversal, but the treatment should never have been achieved first.
In a statement on Monday, Crombie said he had been asking for the contract to be torn from the inauguration.
“We have the same technology here in Ontario, for the good of goodness. What a waste of $ 100 million,” said Crombie, speaking in Kitchener on Monday.
The communities waiting for the Internet connection through Starlink need an alternative immediately, Stiles said.
“It must be a Canadian alternative,” he said in Oshawa on Monday.
