US Ambassador Calls Out Canada’s Starlink Snub at Gatineau Space Conference

Pete Hoekstra, the US ambassador to Canada, says Canada made “a conscious decision” to move away from SpaceX, the company behind Starlink, as Ottawa puts billions of public dollars into Telesat’s Lightspeed satellite network instead.

Hoekstra made the comments on Tuesday at a space industry conference in Gatineau. That’s according to Tesla North, citing reporting from SpaceQ and The Globe and Mail. There’s some irony in Ottawa’s plan, since Telesat still needs SpaceX rockets to get those satellites into orbit.

Federal support for Lightspeed started with an $85 million investment in 2019. A year later, Ottawa committed up to $600 million for Lightspeed capacity that rural internet providers can buy. In September 2024, the federal government signed a $2.14 billion repayable loan with Telesat, and Quebec added a $400 million loan. Then on August 4, 2026, the Defence Investment Agency gave Telesat an Arctic military satellite contract worth about $2.3 billion to start.

Telesat booked 14 Falcon 9 launches with SpaceX back in 2023. Its release for the Arctic deal says the new satellites will be “launched by SpaceX on already-secured Falcon 9 rockets.” We covered that when Ottawa agreed to pay for Telesat’s Arctic satellites.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been clear about where he stands. “Starlink, we will diversify away from, no question,” he told The New York Times in September, as we reported when Carney said he wants Canada off Starlink. Defence Minister David McGuinty said the Arctic contract is about “defending Canada’s sovereignty and security.”

Hoekstra said the US will plan around that choice, and he expects Elon Musk to find other partners. “If it’s not Canada, we’re moving forward; the space will be filled,” he said, according to the Globe.

SpaceX’s business keeps growing even as Ottawa moves away. In third-quarter results released Tuesday, SpaceX said Starlink had 13.6 million consumer subscribers as of September 30, up 1.6 million since June and nearly double a year earlier. The company posted net income of US$4.4 billion on revenue of US$14.6 billion, up 161 per cent from a year ago, making it SpaceX’s first profitable quarter since going public in June.

Ontario has its own mixed signals. The province cancelled its $100 million Starlink contract in 2025, yet the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has watched its SpaceX stake, bought for about $300 million in 2019, grow to nearly US$8.7 billion by June 30, according to the Globe. That jump came as SpaceX kept launching new Starlink satellites.

For now, Starlink is still sold to Canadian households, while Lightspeed’s military service isn’t expected until 2028.

Is Ottawa’s Telesat bet worth it if SpaceX still has to launch it?