Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will cut its reliance on Starlink, the satellite internet service run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in an interview with the New York Times published on Wednesday. The remarks were reported on 24 September by Tesla North, which set them against Ontario’s cancelled provincial Starlink contract and a large SpaceX stake held by the province’s teachers’ pension fund.
Starlink News has not seen the New York Times interview itself, and the Financial Post, Global News and securities-filing details below all reach us through Tesla North’s account rather than from the original documents. Every figure in this report should be read with that chain of attribution in mind.
Key facts
- Ontario’s government under Premier Doug Ford cancelled a $100 million Starlink deal in March 2025 over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Tesla North reports.
- That November 2024 contract was intended to connect roughly 15,000 rural and northern homes through the Ontario Satellite Internet program — about $6,700 per household on those two numbers, by Starlink News’s arithmetic.
- The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan invested about $300 million in SpaceX in 2019 through its venture growth arm, when the company was valued at roughly US$33.3 billion.
- The stake was worth approximately US$8.7 billion as of 30 June, per a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cited by Tesla North — described by the outlet as a roughly 29-fold gain.
- Starlink is still adding customers elsewhere: Vietjet signed a Starlink deal this week for free Wi-Fi on 120 aircraft, and Asiana Airlines now offers free Starlink Wi-Fi onboard.
Why it matters — Starlink News analysis
The following is this outlet’s reading of the reported facts, not a characterisation drawn from Tesla North. On the reporting as published, Carney’s comment is a statement of intent from a head of government about a commercial supplier, not a regulatory action against it: no licence, no tariff and no procurement rule is described as changing. Tesla North itself frames the remarks as part of a broader push to reduce Canada’s economic and strategic dependence on the United States, which is what places Starlink alongside trade and defence policy rather than consumer broadband.
In our assessment it also cuts against the pattern in Starlink News’s recent coverage, which has more often shown governments leaning further on the network — including Finland’s president reportedly asking Musk to extend Starlink. We have not surveyed every Western government’s position, so this is a comparison with our own recent reporting rather than a claim about the field as a whole.
What Carney actually said
The quote
The prime minister’s words, as quoted by Tesla North from the New York Times interview, were blunt: “Starlink, we will diversify away from, no question.” He did not, in the reported remarks, name a timeline, a replacement provider or the specific Canadian services that use Starlink today.
The risk-management framing
Carney tied the position to risk planning rather than to any dispute with SpaceX. He said he has studied the “extreme tail risk” of U.S. military action, telling the paper that a leader has a responsibility to examine such scenarios and that doing so “is just risk management.” Asked about Trump’s comments on making Canada the 51st state, he said a U.S. invasion is “not a base case” but that failing to prepare would be “irresponsible,” according to the same account. Nothing in the reported remarks ties the diversification pledge to Starlink’s performance, coverage or cost.
The Ontario contract that was already scrapped
Timeline: signing to cancellation
Federal rhetoric now echoes a provincial decision taken more than a year earlier. Tesla North reports that Ford’s government signed the satellite deal in November 2024 to serve rural and northern households, then walked away from it in March 2025 in response to U.S. tariffs — a gap of roughly four months — with Musk brushing the cancellation off in a two-word post on X.
The settlement Ontario will not price
Ontario subsequently settled with SpaceX on confidential terms. The outlet reports that the province characterised the exit payment only in relative terms — a “kill fee” significantly smaller than the contract’s value — and that the actual figure remains undisclosed, including in fresh questioning reported by Global News on Thursday, when treasury board president Kinga Surma again declined to give a number. Because both the settlement and any per-user pricing in the original deal are confidential, there is no public basis for comparing what Ontario agreed to pay with Starlink’s retail rates.
What the programme implied per home
The one cost signal that is public is the contract’s headline size against its coverage target: $100 million for about 15,000 homes, or roughly $6,700 each. That is Starlink News’s own division of two figures reported by Tesla North, and it is not a subscription price. The reported details do not say how many years of service the money covered, or how much of it was hardware and installation rather than monthly fees.
The pension fund on the other side of the trade
How the stake was built
The awkward part, in Tesla North’s telling, is that Ontario’s teachers are among SpaceX’s winners. The plan put about $300 million into SpaceX in 2019 through its venture growth arm, when the company carried a valuation of roughly US$33.3 billion. As that valuation climbed, the province ended up paying to leave a Starlink contract while its educators’ retirement fund banked gains on the company behind the service.
Why the 29-fold figure needs a caveat
Tesla North describes the appreciation as roughly 29-fold, comparing the 2019 investment with the US$8.7 billion valuation in the 30 June securities filing. Two qualifications are worth flagging: the initial figure is reported without a currency conversion alongside a U.S.-dollar valuation, and the filing is dated 30 June, so it does not capture any change in SpaceX’s worth since. Tesla North also cites the Financial Post calling the holding a “significant contributor” to the fund’s 9.5 per cent net return for the first half — a characterisation we have not verified against the fund’s own disclosure.
Tesla North does not report any connection between the pension plan’s investment decisions and either the provincial cancellation or Carney’s federal position, and the outlet cites a regulatory filing rather than a statement from the plan for the current value.
What is still unknown
Two questions are explicitly left open in the reporting: how far Carney’s diversification push will extend, and what would replace Starlink where Canada currently depends on it. No Canadian department, contract, budget or timeline is identified, and no alternative supplier is named — not a domestic fibre or fixed-wireless build-out, and not one of the rival low-Earth-orbit networks such as Amazon’s Leo that Starlink News has tracked entering new markets. Until Ottawa attaches a department or a dollar figure to the pledge, the practical effect on Canadian users remains unreported.
How we sourced this
This report is based on Tesla North’s 24 September article, which is the sole outlet Starlink News has for Carney’s quotes, the Ontario contract and settlement details, the SEC filing valuation and the Financial Post and Global News material referenced above. The airline examples are drawn from Starlink News’s own prior reporting, linked in the text. Where we have drawn an inference or done arithmetic ourselves, we have said so. We will update this article if the original interview, the pension plan or the Ontario government publishes figures that change the picture.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly did Mark Carney say about Starlink?
In a New York Times interview published on Wednesday, Carney said: "Starlink, we will diversify away from, no question." Starlink News has not read the full interview transcript; the quote reaches us through Tesla North’s 24 September report on it. In the remarks as quoted, Carney named no timeline, no replacement provider and no specific Canadian service that uses Starlink today.
Has Ontario ever said how much it cost to cancel the Starlink contract?
No. Tesla North reports Ontario reached a confidential settlement with SpaceX and would say only that the "kill fee" was significantly less than the value of the contract. The outlet adds that Global News reported on Thursday that treasury board president Kinga Surma, who signed the original deal, still would not disclose the cancellation cost. Starlink News has not independently obtained the settlement figure.
What would the cancelled Ontario deal have cost per household?
Tesla North puts the contract at $100 million to connect roughly 15,000 rural and northern homes under the Ontario Satellite Internet program. On those two figures, the programme worked out to about $6,700 per household — a Starlink News calculation, not a figure published by the province. Neither the reported contract length nor the split between hardware, installation and monthly service is disclosed, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with a retail Starlink price.
How did Elon Musk react when Ontario scrapped the deal?
According to Tesla North, Musk dismissed the cancellation with a two-word reply on X. The outlet reports no further public comment from him on the Ontario contract.
Did the SpaceX stake affect the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s returns?
Tesla North cites the Financial Post describing the SpaceX holding as a "significant contributor" to the fund’s 9.5 per cent net return for the first half. The valuation of the stake — about US$8.7 billion — comes from a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated 30 June, meaning it is a quarter old and predates any subsequent move in SpaceX’s valuation.
Which other airlines are named as adding Starlink in the report?
Tesla North reports that Asiana Airlines now offers free Starlink Wi-Fi onboard, alongside the new Vietjet agreement covering 120 aircraft. The outlet uses both deals to illustrate that Starlink is still signing customers in other markets while Canada discusses stepping back.
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