Ontario to sell $29-million jet bought for Ford

Ontario is reversing course and will sell the $29-million private jet it bought for Premier Doug Ford.

The move comes just days after the purchase of the 2016 Bombardier Challenger 650 jet was revealed on Friday, sparking a wave of backlash from critics who called it a waste of money.

Ford acknowledged the criticism in a statement Sunday, saying that the province is working with Bombardier and other partners to sell the plane.

“Despite the best of intentions, I have heard and agree that now is not the right time for the expense of a government plane,” Ford said.

Ford’s office had initially said the premier travels often for work and that the jet, purchased for $28.9 million, is cheaper than the $107 million Quebec taxpayers paid for two new Challenger jets and one used one.

But opposition parties slammed the expense, which comes during an extended affordability crisis, with New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles and interim Liberal leader John Fraser both calling the jet Ford’s “gravy plane.”

Fraser said Sunday that Ford’s reversal over the plane purchase doesn’t necessarily mean provincial coffers will be made whole.

“Now, only after intense backlash, he’s scrambling to sell his gravy plane. But it could easily be sold at a loss and sit on the books as a liability for taxpayers for months,” he said. 

“How much is this going to cost Ontarians? We may never know,” Fraser added, referring to the province’s controversial plan to make the premier’s records — and those of his cabinet ministers — secret through changes to freedom-of-information laws.

“Ontario can’t afford a Premier who lavishes himself in luxury and operates under the cover of darkness and secrecy, while he messes up everything under his control,” Fraser said.

Meanwhile, Stiles characterized the reversal as Ford “turning the plane around mid-air for an emergency landing because he got caught living like a rockstar” on the taxpayer’s dime, in a social media post Sunday.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said he’s glad the premier is taking the outrage seriously but he finds it “outrageous” that Ford put his travel interests over “everyday people’s affordability struggles.”

“People are tired of seeing this government use our taxpayer dollars like its own personal piggy bank. That’s money that could be used to build affordable homes, fund hospitals or hire teachers,” he said.

When the province announced it had purchased the plane earlier this week, more than just opposition leaders hit back.

“It is completely unacceptable Ford is billing taxpayers for a private jet so he can fly around the province in luxury,” said Noah Jarvis, the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in a statement.

“Especially when this government is borrowing billions of dollars this year and wasting more than a billion dollars a month on debt interest charges.”

In 2019, Ford brushed off the idea of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a plane.

The premier has chartered flights to the United States in the past when on trips to promote Ontario and he often flies within the province on smaller OPP planes.

Ford is a notoriously fickle flyer who has often talked about his fear of air travel, particularly in smaller planes. 

“You hit wind turbulence, and you’re — at least my heart — it just drops, and you drop 100 feet, and you’re holding on for dear life,” he said at a press conference in late October.

— With files from Liam Casey

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2026.

By Kathryn Mannie | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.