Steve Watts
2025-03-06 20:13:32 UTC
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PermalinkOntario Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday responded to U.S. President Donald
Trumps tariffs by ripping up the Canadian provinces contract with Elon
Musks Starlink. Its done; its gone, Ford said of the deal.
Consumers who have quickly grown to rely on the SpaceX satellite network
may not be willing to follow suit.
Starlink flies more than 7,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) serving
some 5 million subscribers, and Canada is the companys largest market
outside of the U.S.
Serving swaths of remote locations that traditional internet services dont
reach, the popular service poses a dilemma for patriotic Canadians who want
to boycott American goods over widespread anger against Trump and his
closest adviser, Musk.
Take Louise Dumayne, a Yukon-based writer who posted a rallying call to
shun U.S. companies on her Facebook page. Everything that is, except
Starlink.
Dumayne who lives close to the Klondike gold rush town of Dawson City,
about 445 kilometers (277 miles) by car from the Arctic Circle said
reliable internet service from Starlink has boosted her husbands income by
as much as 40 per cent. I feel conflicted, she said on a video call (via
Starlink) from her wooden cabin, where a caribou hide hangs on the wall.
Starlink is really robust and works despite temperatures lower than minus
40C (minus 40F), she said.
After the U.S. imposed 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian and Mexican
imports on March 4, and with Trump threatening tariffs on more countries,
consumers around the world may be facing similar conflicts.
(Idem Est Advisory & Research)
Ford isnt the only Canadian politician targeting SpaceX. British
Columbias Premier David Eby in early February said his province was no
longer considering a deal with Starlink that had been in the works. R.J.
Simpson, the premier of the Northwest Territories, on Tuesday said his
government is looking at alternatives, too.
Businessman Gord Fry has first-hand experience of the backlash. The owner
of Muskoka Starlink, a company that installs equipment in an area two hours
from Toronto by car, Fry has received online and in-person abuse due to the
name on his van.
Hes turned off public comments for Facebook ads to stop the political
rants, said Fry. The only thing thats holding Starlink back regarding
further and faster advancements through Canada is a negative public opinion
thats being caused by Elon Musk shooting his mouth off, and certainly
Trump.
Still, for all the anger, Starlink has a quasi-monopoly on reliable and
affordable LEO internet. That leaves few options for people who want to
distance themselves from Musk.
What is the alternative? Theres not much alternative, said Quebecs
minister of cybersecurity and digital technology Gilles Bélanger.
Arctic lifeline
Home to many remote communities that crave decent and affordable internet,
Canada in many ways is a perfect fit for the SpaceX-owned network. Starlink
had about 533,000 users in the country as of January, according to the firm
Idem Est Advisory & Research.
Musk himself has connections to Canada. His mother was born in Saskatchewan
and he attended Queens University in Ontario before transferring to the
University of Pennsylvania.
Yet after more than 350,000 Canadians signed a petition to revoke the
SpaceX chief executive officers citizenship, he posted Canada is not a
real country on his social media platform X, before later deleting the
comment. Trump, meanwhile, has enraged Canadians by saying he plans to use
economic force to make Canada a 51st state.
While Musks electric car company Tesla Inc. looks vulnerable to blowback,
with sales slumping in Europe, Australia and China, Starlinks dominant
position is helping to protect his space network from political backlash.
Nunavut, an Arctic territory about 20 per cent larger than Alaska, has no
roads connecting its 25 communities and no fiber-optic lines to link them
to the internet. That lack of connectivity has been an impediment to
development in Canadas North even as economic and military interest grows
due to climate change making the region more accessible by sea.
Starlink saw significant and rapid adoption in Nunavut, according to data
from internet speed testing website owner Ookla LLC. A Starlink Nunavut
Facebook group has more than 7,000 members, which would represent about a
fifth of the vast territorys population, although not all of the group
members necessarily live there.
It looks like every other house has a Starlink when you go for a walk,
said Andrew Arreak, a resident of Mittimatalik, known in English as Pond
Inlet, a predominantly Inuit community almost eight hours by air from
Ottawa.
Neighbours take Starlink antennae with them on camping and hunting trips
out in the tundra, and it makes them much safer, he said. Before, they used
radio with limited range.
Madeleine Redfern, former mayor of the territorys capital Iqaluit,
seconded Arreaks endorsement. For years she paid NorthwesTel Inc. $1,000
(US$695) a month to keep her home office connected, but suffered from data
caps, excess use charges and poor service.
Since switching to Starlink, she pays closer to $130 and is now able to do
things like stream videos. People who dont have it are desperate to get
it, she said of Musks network.
Starlinks website shows Iqaluit as sold out.
Tony Fortunato, an engineer installing Starlink terminals for Nunavuts
housing agency, said talk of boycotts isnt persuading locals. Theyre
like: It doesnt affect me. We have no choice. Like what are we gonna do?
Have nothing?
Canadas government has announced projects to improve Nunavuts broadband,
including nearly $27 million for SSi Micro Ltd. to increase satellite
capacity for the territorys 25 communities and more than $270 million to
create a fiber link to Iqaluit and three others.
Canadian option
Those holding out for a Canadian Starlink rival will have to wait.
A spokesperson for NorthwesTel said the company mainly provides fiber optic
internet in the Yukon, where its headquartered, and the Northwest
Territories. To offer satellite broadband it also partners with OneWeb, a
LEO constellation owned by Frances Eutelsat Communications SACA, and with
Canadas Telesat Corp.
Ottawa-based Telesat today uses geostationary satellites at elevations many
times higher than Musks, meaning a slower round trip for communications.
Telesat is building a US$4.6 billion LEO fleet of 198 satellites called
Lightspeed with Ontario manufacturer MDA Space Ltd that could better
compete with Starlink, but the constellation is years behind schedule, with
service scheduled to begin in 2027.
Although Telesats model is wholesale, CEO Dan Goldberg told Bloomberg by
email that a direct-to-consumer offering could be supported over time, in
the vein of Starlink.
Another provider, Xplore Inc., last September announced the first
connections in a plan to create fiber links for more than 35,000 Ontario
homes and businesses, part of a plan to make more than 400,000 connections
nationwide by 2027.
Former Iqaluit mayor Redfern is chief operating officer for CanArctic Inuit
Networks Inc., which hopes to connect a subsea fiber line between Nunavuts
capital and a town in Newfoundland and Labrador.
SpaceX and Xplore didnt reply to requests for comment.
Quebec and Ontario
Before the trade war, Canadas politicians were promising to fork over
large sums of money to get rural constituents connected to Starlink.
Ontario announced a $100 million partnership last November to offer
Starlink to 15,000 homes and businesses in rural and northern areas, a deal
that Ford canceled on Tuesday. We wont award contracts to people who
enable and encourage economic attacks on our province and our country, the
Ontario premier said at a press conference.
Quebec, which has pledged to make high-speed internet available to all its
residents, has a deal worth $138 million that has paid for Starlink
equipment and discounts for about 10,000 people. The program expires in
June, and a decision on whether to renew some subsidies should come in May,
said Bélanger.
Maybe $138 million is not big enough for Musk to care about a backlash,
he said. Canada will need to think about a solution, a Canadian solution.
For now, Yukon-based writer Dumayne worries that Canadian users of Starlink
could even become pawns in the trade war if U.S.-Canada relations
deteriorate further.
What if Elon Musk decides on a tit-for-tat with Starlink and decides that
hes going to double the price? she said. Wed have to pay it, at this
point.
With assistance from Mathieu Dion.
Thomas Seal and Danielle Bochove, Bloomberg News
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2025/03/06/canadas-anti-
musk-pivot-hits-starlinks-second-biggest-market/