Some Canadian governments reconsidering use of Starlink

ST. JOHN’S — More than half of Canada’s provincial and territorial governments buy critical internet and emergency communications services from Starlink — a satellite constellation owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

And with Musk now acting as a top adviser to a U.S. president who has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada, one researcher sees that reliance as a threat to Canadian sovereignty.

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Dwayne Winseck, a professor of journalism and communications at Carleton University who has studied Starlink’s emergence as the sixth-largest internet service provider in Canada as of 2023, says Canadian governments must do the “maximum possible” to disentangle themselves from Starlink.

“Cutting contracts is one approach,” he said in a recent interview. “There are also some made-in-Canada alternatives that can be accelerated.”

From a $200,000-per-year agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador’s Crown energy corporation to a contract with British Columbia that includes remote ambulance service and wildfire response, governments are dependent on Starlink for communications in far-flung parts of the country where there are few other options, The Canadian Press has found.

The Starlink network was developed by SpaceX, a Musk-owned space exploration company headquartered in the United States. Starlink is a low-Earth orbit satellite constellation, reaching altitudes of about 600 kilometres. The satellites can deliver broadband internet to remote locations that have long been without fast, reliable internet service.

Winseck said Starlink is filling a critical infrastructure gap that ought to have been filled by the efforts of Canadian governments and Canadian companies. And that puts Canada in a precarious position, he said.

“Elon Musk has been very hostile to the government of Canada,” Winseck said, pointing to Musk’s position as a right-hand man to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened to use “economic force” to make Canada the 51st state.

It seems some territorial and provincial governments share Winseck’s concerns.

A survey by The Canadian Press found Crown corporations or governments in four provinces and three territories had agreements with Starlink to provide communication in remote areas, some of which were essential for emergency services. Other provinces, including Alberta and Nova Scotia, have offered rebates for residents using Starlink in remote areas. However, some governments said they are shopping for alternatives.

Manitoba has a contract with Starlink for “to provide service to several remote areas,” but the province is “monitoring the situation and considering its options,” a spokesperson said an emailed statement.

In Nunavut, the government has contracts with Starlink for “bandwidth service,” but is “evaluating alternative means to ensure services to the public are maintained,” a spokesperson said in an email.

And the government of the Northwest Territories uses Starlink on an “as-needed basis” for emergency and backup communications. However, the territory is committed to a Team Canada approach to protect the country’s “economic resilience, sovereignty, and security,” said a government spokesperson in an email. “Exploring alternatives to Starlink aligns with that commitment.”

Starlink is also a popular choice among Canadian households. Approximately 300,000 homes got their internet connections through Starlink in 2023, according to a 2024 report from the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project, which is led by Winseck. Those homes were primarily in remote parts of the country where broadband access is poor, non-existent or prohibitively expensive.

Winsek estimates that figure is now closer to 500,000.

The Global Media and Internet Concentration Project report raises concerns about Musk having the power to shut down the service at any time, especially if he was displeased with Canadian telecommunication regulations.

For Winseck, that worry is increasingly relevant. Earlier this month, Musk reposted someone’s message on X, his social media platform, that suggested he cut off Canada’s Starlink access to protest the government of British Columbia’s decision to exclude Tesla — which is also run by Musk — from provincial energy rebates.

Jesse Fiddler is also uneasy with Musk at the helm of essential communications services in Canada. Fiddler is the director at KNet, an Indigenous-owned company which offers internet and cellular service to more than 26 First Nations in northwestern Ontario.

“How much are we going to be dependent on this foreign company that has ability to change its level of service, or turn it off if they get mad?” Fiddler asked in a recent interview.

Governments’ reliance on Starlink undermines local efforts to build proper broadband infrastructure that could be owned and operated by the communities they serve, Fiddler said.

He pointed to the contract the Ontario government recently cancelled with Starlink, in response to Trump’s repeated threats to impose punishing tariffs on Canadian goods. Announced last year, the partnership would have seen Starlink deliver high-speed internet to 15,000 homes and businesses in remote and northern communities.

Local companies, including KNet, likely could have built the right partnerships to fulfil that contract, Fiddler said. And though a local partnership probably would have needed more money than Starlink to get it done, they would have hired local people.

“We do have the ability to build our own infrastructure in Canada, and we have the expertise,” he said. “We should be building our own economy, our own industries to do it, rather than outsourcing it to a foreign company.”

Winsek said he’s keeping an eye on Eutelsat in Europe and Telesat, a Canadian company working on a low-Earth orbit satellite project called Lightspeed, which is expected to launch next year. Both of those companies will have to work hard to build a product that can compete with Starlink, which has had a significant head start in the race to provide reliable, high-quality satellite internet to remote places, Winseck noted.

“But I’m hopeful that, seized by the threats that are welling up all around us, that this will serve as a wake-up call to help galvanize a phase of technological innovation that puts them on par with Starlink,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2025.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press