‘Gravy plane’: Ontario buys used $28.9-million jet for Premier Doug Ford

TORONTO – Ontario taxpayers are footing the bill for a $29-million private jet for Premier Doug Ford’s use, a purchase critics say is a waste of money. 

The premier’s office said the province bought a used 2016 Bombardier Challenger 650 jet for $28.9 million. It will operate out of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

The plane is expected to be operational by the end of July, Ford’s office said.

“As part of the job of being premier of Ontario, there is extensive travel within Ontario, a province twice the land mass of Texas,” Ford’s office wrote in a statement. 

“This is in addition to travel across Canada for Council of the Federation and first ministers’ meetings, which have increased in frequency, as well as travel to the United States to help make the case against President Trump’s tariffs.”

Ford’s office said the government purchased the plane to “support more certain, flexible, secure and confidential travel.”

The office noted the jet is cheaper than the $107 million Quebec taxpayers paid for two new Challenger jets and one used one.

Opposition parties slammed the purchase, which comes during an extended affordability crisis.

“At a time when people can’t afford to buy groceries or gas, Doug Ford is buying himself a private jet,” Fraser said. 

“It doesn’t get much more out of touch than that, and I guess the gravy train just wasn’t enough, now he’s got to get a gravy plane.”‘

The province should be spending that money elsewhere, such as in classrooms, said New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles. 

“Ford ran on a promise to stop the gravy train only to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on his gravy plane,” she said. 

“This is ridiculous.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner demanded Ford backtrack on the purchase.

“This government’s priorities are so out of touch with the lives of everyday people,” he said. “Time and time again, he puts himself and his wealthy friends first, and the people of Ontario last.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has also demanded Ford reverse his decision to buy the plane.

“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 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. Instead, he wanted a customized van to roam the province in, which led to its own controversy.

Former New Democrat Taras Natyshak needled Ford over the van, which he dubbed a “souped-up man cave on wheels” and the “pleasure wagon.”

“Can the premier explain how equipping a van with a mini fridge, a 32-inch television with a Blu-ray player and a leather power-reclining sofa is a cost-cutting measure for the taxpayers of Ontario?” Natyshak asked Ford during question period on Feb. 27, 2019.

“Through you, Mr. Speaker, I know it’s important to the opposition to talk about a van, but let me tell you something about that,” Ford responded. 

“Mr. Speaker, I requested a used van that is one-third the cost of the regular suburban. I’m the only premier in history that refuses to use the premier’s plane, the King Air, that costs the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. I prefer to drive around and talk to the people about things that matter.”

Ford 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.

The premier is a notoriously fickle flyer with an intense fear of air travel. 

Ford has said that’s the reason he has yet to visit the First Nations near Ontario’s mineral-rich Ring of Fire region. 

Webequie First Nation and Marten Falls First Nation have both partnered with the province on building a road to a proposed mining area in the Ring of Fire that will also connect the fly-in communities to the provincial highway system farther south.

Ford spoke about his flying fears at several press conferences with those First Nations, explaining his inability to visit was partially due to his concerns about prop 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 in late October. 

“And why do we have to do single prop? Because jets can’t fly in.”

A month later, Ford said of single-propeller planes: “I’m terrified when I go on those things.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2026.