Ontario has quietly added a $28.9 million executive jet to Premier Doug Ford’s travel toolkit, taking possession this week of a used aircraft that will be used primarily for the premier’s official trips.
The aircraft is not new off the line. It is a previously owned Bombardier Challenger 650, bought through Bombardier, with the province confirming the plane had been owned by a South American owner before Ontario acquired it. A senior official said Ontario Provincial Police and others reviewed the jet’s flight logs and found it had only been used for “legitimate purposes.”
Ontario paid $28.9 million for the aircraft. The jet seats 12 passengers and has a stated range of 7,400 kilometres, a major step up from the province’s existing Beechcraft King Air turboprops, which officials described as range-limited for longer travel.
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The purchase also lands just days after Ford’s April 10 to 12 Texas trade mission, a trip his office promoted as part of Ontario’s tariff and trade push with US officials and business leaders. Reporting around the jet says Ford’s government has been chartering private aircraft for some official US travel, including that Texas mission, which provides the clearest practical rationale for moving from charter use to ownership.
But the politics are rough because Ontario already has a long memory on this file. In 1981, Bill Davis’s Progressive Conservative government bought a $10.6 million Challenger for the premier, only to sell it a little more than a year later after opposition attacks framed it as an unnecessary luxury. According to multiple accounts, the proceeds were used to buy two water bombers.
The Ford purchase also arrives after the premier pushed to expand Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to allow jet traffic, saying the province would take control of Toronto’s stake in the airport lands and move ahead with runway expansion and special economic zone status.
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