The Ontario government is on the hook for nearly $200,000 in extra costs related to the purchase of the $28.9-million private jet that Premier Doug Ford decided to resell after a public outcry.
The extra costs amounted to $190,865.56, for legal advice, maintenance, storage and inspection services, and did not include taxes, according to a briefing note by the Ontario government.
Invoices also show that – as Mr. Ford has said publicly – the government last month sold the jet back to planemaker Bombardier for US$21-million, or about C$28.9-million. But until now, the province had not detailed any extra costs it had incurred when it reversed the decision to buy the plane.
The move to buy the used 2016 Bombardier Challenger 650 for the Premier and other ministers to use on foreign trade missions or travel within Ontario was seized on by opposition politicians when it was first revealed on April 17.
At the time, the Premier’s Office defended the purchase as necessary for Mr. Ford’s travel to meet with other premiers and the Prime Minister, as well as to make trips to the United States to shore up support for Ontario businesses and lobby against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
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But just two days later, the Premier’s Office said the government was selling the plane, with Mr. Ford acknowledging he had heard concerns from the public about the cost. But he also said he faced more scrutiny than other politicians, including in the federal government, which has also spent hundreds of millions on jets for security operations.
Mr. Ford then revealed on April 22 that the plane had to been sold back to the manufacturer for the “exact same price” the government had spent on it.
Opposition politicians had railed against Mr. Ford’s move to purchase the jet, calling it the “gravy plane” and saying that Ontarians facing pricey groceries and long waits in emergency rooms were in no mood to see their Premier jetting around in a luxury aircraft.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has called for the province’s Auditor-General to probe the jet purchase, while interim Liberal leader John Fraser has repeatedly demanded that the government release documents related to the jet and answer basic questions, such as who currently owns it.
On Wednesday, Mr. Fraser said Mr. Ford “burned through” $190,000 in just two days holding onto a luxury jet he never needed.
“This is a tired, out-of-touch Premier who looked at a $28.9-million plane, knew the hundreds of thousands in holding costs it would incur, and bought it anyway,” he said in a statement.
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Auditor-General Shelley Spence said Tuesday that her office’s work docket was full for this year, with audits under way. She said that she was selecting audits for 2027 – meaning the release of any jet investigation, if greenlit, would be more than a year away.
Ms. Spence said opposition members could also ask the legislature’s standing committee on public accounts to demand that she audit the jet. However, an NDP motion to do just that was voted down by the PC-dominated committee this week.
Speaking to The Globe and Mail earlier on Wednesday before the documents were released, Mr. Ford said he didn’t have the full costs.
“I haven’t even got the whole numbers. The lawyers are working on it. I promise you, when we do, you will get them,” he said.
“We listened to the people. It was the wrong time. And we sent it back.”
The documents show that the government received the aircraft on April 15, and that Bombardier took it back on April 27 – and that the jet wasn’t used while it was in the Ontario government’s possession.
The government issued an invoice to Bombardier to sell the jet back to the company on April 24, for US$21-million, plus US$2.73-million in harmonized sales tax (HST).
The documents also show that the government had actually executed a letter of intent with Bombardier to buy the plane several months ago, on Jan. 16. The company asked the province to pay a US$500,000 deposit on Jan. 19.
In an e-mail, Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for the Premier, said the nearly $200,000 in extra costs had just been finalized on Wednesday. She also said that “no retrofit-related costs were incurred.”
The extra costs detailed in the documents include $17,801.78 for “aviation acquisition support” from Services Lyne Barbeau Inc., which provided “contract review, vendor co-ordination, technical/transactional guidance.”
Execaire Aviation was paid $139,628.81 for “maintenance, operation preparedness, training, storage, servicing, and inspection/testing.”
Outside legal counsel Miriam Kavanagh Professional Corporation was paid $33,434.97 for “specialized aviation legal services, including contract advice and transaction support for both acquisition and sale phases.”