Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that he would cancel the $100 million deal the Canadian province signed with Starlink in response to Trump's 25% tariff on Canadian goods. He’s also imposing a 25% tax on electricity exports, with New York, Michigan, and Minnesota being the most affected. CBC also reports that U.S.-based companies are banned from procurement contracts with the province.
This isn’t the first time Ford has canceled the Starlink deal over tariffs. Ford threatened not to go ahead with the contract because of all the talk of tariffs in February. However, since Trump delayed it by about a month, he decided to move forward with it. But this time, the Ontario Premier said that even if Trump lifts the 25% tariffs he applied just days ago, the deal will remain canceled—permanently.
This isn’t the only major institution changing its mind on Starlink. Italy is also said to have second thoughts about moving forward with a $1.6 billion deal with SpaceX. Sources told Bloomberg that this is because of the White House’s moves to pull back from its commitments to NATO and European security. Aside from that, the Italian government also considers Elon Musk unreliable. The Italian government and SpaceX have declined to comment as the talks are confidential.
Italy was considering Starlink to provide the Italian military with satellite communications and to deliver direct-to-cell satellite service during emergencies. However, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that the change in the White House’s stance on its military support for Ukraine means that the government should look for viable alternatives, like Eutelsat.
Eutelsat, a satellite communications provider based in France, offers OneWeb as a competitor to Starlink. The European company has the second biggest satellite constellation after SpaceX, operating 600 satellites orbiting at 1,200 kilometers. SpaceX has a much larger 7,000-satellite system located at a much closer altitude of just 550 kilometers. Despite that, it was reportedly in talks with Italy to provide satellite communications service for its armed forces. It also considers deploying 40,000 terminals to Ukraine to replace Starlink systems if Musk stops service in the beleaguered nation.
These deal cancelations resulted from Trump's massive policy changes, which caught many of America’s closest allies and partners off guard. However, Ontario’s move to cancel its Starlink contract is relatively small, at just $100 million, so it may not matter much to Musk, who posted “Oh well” on X in response to the first cancelation. As for the Italy deal, there is no concrete sign whether the country will push through with Starlink, mainly because the discussions are conducted secretly.
