Toronto/CMEDIA: Ontario is reportedly reversing its course to sell the $29-million private jet it bought for Premier Doug Ford after a wave of backlash from critics who called it a waste of money.
Acknowledging the criticism, Ford said in a statement Sunday 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.
But opposition parties slammed the expense, which comes during an extended affordability crisis.
Interim Liberal leader John 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…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 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.
Meanwhile, New Democrat Leader Marit 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.
“It is completely unacceptable Ford is billing taxpayers for a private jet so he can fly around the province in luxury…Especially when this government is borrowing billions of dollars this year and wasting more than a billion dollars a month on debt interest charges” said Noah Jarvis, the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in a statement.
In 2019, Ford brushed off the idea of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a plane.
