Ontario’s abrupt cancellation of a $100-million Starlink deal, meant to wire up 15,000 remote homes and businesses with satellite internet, has sparked outrage in the north. The move, announced Tuesday by Premier Doug Ford as a counterpunch to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, has left Indigenous communities reeling and questioning the province’s promise of universal broadband access.
The contract, inked in 2024 with Elon Musk’s Starlink, was a lifeline for northern Ontario, where spotty cell service and shaky internet are the norm. But Ford scrapped it—along with banning U.S. firms from provincial contracts—as part of a retaliation spree against Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, including a 10 per cent hit on energy. “We’re digging in for a long haul,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park, flanked by mics in a dim room. “Every tool’s on the table.”
Sol Mamakwa, NDP MPP for Kiiwetinoong, blasted the decision, calling internet “essential” for everything from banking to business in his sprawling northern riding. “People reached out, worried about what this means for them,” he said. “It’s almost $7,000 per connection—huge when cell service barely exists because there’s no profit in it up here.”
While existing Starlink subscribers dodge the fallout, Mamakwa warns the cancellation slams the brakes on connectivity for remote Indigenous areas already scraping by digitally. He’s pushing for Canadian-owned fixes like K-Net’s fibre optic networks in northwestern Ontario, which he says outpace Starlink. “Satellite’s a quick patch—we need fibre’s bigger capacity for the long run,” he argued.
The province once vowed, “Broadband will reach every Ontarian, no matter where you are.” Now, with Starlink out and Trump’s trade war heating up, Mamakwa’s pressing Ford to ditch political point-scoring and double down on lasting solutions like fibre and cell towers.