MONTREAL — The Quebec government will cease subsidizing access to Starlink for people living in remote areas of the province next week.

The province isn’t renewing its three-year, $130-million contract with the Elon Musk-owned internet provider, which comes to an end on June 15, cybersecurity ministry spokesperson Émile Boudreau confirmed in an email to The Logic. Though access to Starlink won’t be interrupted, Quebecers in remote areas will lose access to the $40-a-month subsidy, as well as free Starlink receivers, which retail for $599.

Quebec signed the contract with Starlink in 2022 as part of Opération haute vitesse, its $1.3 billion initiative to deliver high-speed internet to 250,000 households in the province. As part of the plan, Starlink’s low-orbit satellites brought internet service to 10,000 “orphan households” in the province—those addresses that were too remote for traditional fibre optic installations. 

In February, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and threats to annex Canada, Quebec signalled its intent to end its relationship with Starlink in order to develop “connectivity sovereignty,” said Quebec MNA Gilles Bélanger, who has since been named cybersecurity minister.

Opération haute vitesse has exceeded its original connectivity target, having hooked up nearly 369,000 more households as of June 9, representing the entirety of homes in the province, Boudreau said. It is unclear how many of these homes still rely on Starlink for access to high-speed internet.

Despite the removal of the Starlink subsidy, some of Quebec’s courthouses will continue to rely on the technology to stay online. In April, the government awarded a contract to install Starlink internet services in remote courthouses, underscoring how there are currently few if any viable alternatives to the service. 

Amazon expects to begin rollout of Project Kuiper, its satellite broadband network, later this year, though the company hasn’t announced a Canadian launch date. Ottawa-based Telesat, which secured a $2.14-billion loan from the federal government in 2024 to develop its own network of low-earth orbit satellites, doesn’t expect to launch its own satellites until 2026. 

Quebec prioritizes fibre-optic infrastructure over the low-Earth orbit satellite services offered by Starlink and its rivals.

Ontario-based Xplore has petitioned the province for funding to expand fibre-optic network deployment in Quebec’s rural regions, yet cost and lack of telephone poles has hindered progress.