Doug Ford says private jet has been sold for same price

Premier Doug Ford is seen alongside a screenshot of Bombardier Challenger 650 jet.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province has sold off a private jet it purchased for $28.9 million following an outcry.

“I can announce we sold the plane for the same price right back to Bombardier,” Premier Doug Ford said at a Toronto event Wednesday.

The comment comes days after Ford’s office said he’d sell off the plane.

It’s not yet clear what additional expenses the province incurred around the jet purchase, which was slammed by critics as being “out of touch” during an affordability crisis.

Opposition Leader Marit Stiles has called on Ford to personally repay any additional costs around the jet purchase and sale.

For his part, Ford said earlier this week he believes the jet was needed, but that he’d sell it off anyhow after hearing “loud and clear” from the public.

Still, the premier said he believed a “double standard” was being applied to him, and that he’s the most scrutinized politician in Canada, including Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Speaking with reporters at Queen’s Park Tuesday, he described the case for the purchase, saying it was “kind of embarrassing” a province the size of Ontario doesn’t have a government plane.

The province does have a fleet of aircraft, but they are not always available for the premier’s use and he often travels on commercial flights.

Among other things, he suggested the jet could have been used to ferry around other cabinet ministers, and perhaps even to assist in rescues from Northern Ontario communities.

That prompted opposition critics to quickly point out that a Challenger jet cannot land on most of the gavel runways in Northern Ontario.

Asked about that at a fireside chat with the Globe and Mail Wednesday, Ford said “it’s about time.”

He said a recent trip to Texas netted $6 billion in investments and would not have been possible if he had not chartered a jet to make more than a dozen appointments across three cities in just two days.