{"id":622189,"date":"2026-04-21T21:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622189\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:29:09","slug":"yes-doug-ford-quebec-bought-private-jets-but-not-for-the-premiers-travels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622189\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Doug Ford, Quebec bought private jets \u2014 but not for the premier’s travels"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last week, Ontario\u2019s premier pointed to a fleet of Quebec government-owned planes as justification for having his own private aircraft.<\/p>\n

But Quebec\u2019s premier has no such private plane \u2014 so, what\u2019s going on?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Premier Doug Ford justified the purchase of the plane, a used Bombardier Challenger 650, by touting his extensive travel within Ontario and even to the U.S.<\/p>\n

But his office also repeatedly stated that Quebec had purchased three jets for $107 million \u2014 more per plane than Ford\u2019s $28.9 million aircraft.<\/p>\n

On Monday, after his government backtracked on the plane purchase and said the jet would be sold, Ford said he was the most scrutinized person in the country. He questioned why there hadn\u2019t been similar scrutiny applied to the Quebec private jet purchase.<\/p>\n

So, we asked the Quebec government about the jets Ford was referring to \u2014 and whether the Quebec government owns a private plane for the premier\u2019s travel needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Quebec\u2019s Transport Ministry told us the premier does fly private \u2014 but on chartered flights.<\/p>\n

There is no government plane for the premier\u2019s exclusive travel, according to a spokesperson for the premier\u2019s office. They said the jets Ford was referring to are used for medical transport.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Fact checking Doug Ford’s claims:\"\"<\/p>\n

Fact check: Quebec has private jets, but not for its premier<\/p>\n

Last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended his province\u2019s purchase of a private jet for his travels by pointing to Quebec\u2019s government-owned planes. While Quebec has recently purchased three jets, the government says they are used for medical transport.<\/p>\n

The medical jets are highly specialized aircraft designed to transport patients living in remote communities to medical facilities.<\/p>\n

A 2025 call for tenders<\/a> detailed the specifications the Quebec government had for one of its new private jets: it says the plane must be modified to include a medical ramp and other specialized medical equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2024, a Quebec coroner found that the province had an insufficient number of medical aircraft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The government has announced its intentions to improve its fleet of medical aircraft and establish a helicopter service at a price tag of $140 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2024 call for tenders<\/a> noted that Quebec was seeing an increase in the number of patients requiring transport by air. The province\u2019s air fleet at the time was aging and unable to meet demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase in demand, combined with the aging of the aircraft fleet, has led to a rise in maintenance work and aircraft downtime,\u201d the call for tenders said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo address this situation, the [ministry] must acquire a used Challenger 650 jet that is compatible with its current fleet, with the goal of having it operational in the short term.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATCH | Ford decries ‘double standard’:\"\"<\/p>\n

Ford calls media coverage of private jet ‘a double standard’<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m the premier that listens to the people,\u2019 Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters after announcing the province would sell a $28.9 million private jet purchased for the premier’s use. Ford also called out media coverage on the topic, saying the federal and Quebec governments also bought jets with \u2018no word\u2019 from the media.<\/p>\n

Ford, however, didn’t just single out Quebec’s $107-million jet purchase in justifying Ontario’s acquisition, he also pointed to the federal government’s $753-million contract for six new Bombardier Global 6500 jets. <\/p>\n

In a December news release<\/a>, the federal government said the Canadian-built aircraft are for the Royal Canadian Air Force and part of its commitment to rebuild, rearm and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n

The new jets will replace the current CC-144 Challenger fleet and will be used for “worldwide utility flights and support missions such as aeromedical evacuations, disaster relief, humanitarian aid and national security operations.”<\/p>\n

CBC reached out to Ford’s office for comment Monday and is waiting to hear back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-622189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}