{"id":611151,"date":"2026-09-25T07:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611151\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T07:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:30:18","slug":"carney-says-canada-will-ditch-starlink-as-ontario-cashes-in-on-spacex-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611151\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney Says Canada Will Ditch Starlink as Ontario Cashes In on SpaceX Stake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SpaceX<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney told the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that Canada will reduce its reliance on Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, saying, \u201cStarlink, we will diversify away from, no question.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister described the move as part of a broader effort to reduce Canada\u2019s economic and strategic dependence on the United States, saying he has studied the \u201cextreme tail risk\u201d of U.S. military action. \u201cI think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,\u201d Carney said, adding \u201cthat\u2019s just risk management,\u201d when asked about President Donald Trump\u2019s comments about making Canada the 51st state. A U.S. invasion is \u201cnot a base case,\u201d he said, but it would be \u201cirresponsible\u201d not to prepare.<\/p>\n

That warning creates an awkward split screen in Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford\u2019s government cancelled the $100 million Starlink deal<\/a> in March 2025 over Trump\u2019s tariffs. The November 2024 contract was intended to connect roughly 15,000 rural and northern homes through the Ontario Satellite Internet program. Musk dismissed it with a two-word \u201coh well\u201d on X. Ontario later reached a confidential settlement<\/a> with SpaceX, saying only that the \u201ckill fee\u201d was significantly less than the contract value. On Thursday, Global News reported treasury board president Kinga Surma, who signed the deal, still would not disclose the cancellation cost.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Ontario\u2019s teachers hold a major investment in the company Ford moved against. The Ontario Teachers\u2019 Pension Plan invested about $300 million in SpaceX in 2019 through its venture growth arm, when it was valued at roughly US$33.3 billion. That stake was worth approximately US$8.7 billion at June 30, per a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, and the Financial Post called it a \u201csignificant contributor\u201d to the fund\u2019s 9.5 per cent first-half net return.<\/p>\n

The contrast is difficult to ignore. While Ottawa discusses reducing Canada\u2019s dependence on Starlink and Queen\u2019s Park paid to exit its deal, Ontario\u2019s teachers\u2019 pension has recorded a roughly 29-fold gain on Musk\u2019s rocket company. Starlink continues expanding in other markets. Vietjet signed a Starlink deal<\/a> this week for free Wi-Fi on 120 aircraft, and Asiana Airlines now offers free Starlink Wi-Fi onboard<\/a>. How far Carney\u2019s diversification push extends, and what replaces Starlink where Canada relies on it, remains an open question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Mark Carney told the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that Canada will reduce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-611151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}