LILLEY: ‘Gravy Plane’ receipts released by Doug Ford

Ontario taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $200K after premier returned private jet to Bombardier

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Published May 13, 2026  •  3 minute read

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to media at Queen's Park in Toronto on July 28, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun

Nearly $200,000. That’s what Ontario taxpayers are on the hook for after Doug Ford returned his ‘Gravy Plane’ to Bombardier. That’s a steep price tag considering the province only owned the plane for 13 days.

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According to documents released by the Ford government late Wednesday, the province took possession of the plane at 5:14 p.m. on April 15 and returned the plane at 5:20 p.m. on April 27.

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Total cost after Bombardier agreed to buy the used jet back for the exact price that they paid for it: $190,865.56. That includes $17,801.78 for “acquisition support” including contract review, $33,434.97 for outside legal advice related to aviation services, and $139,628.81 for maintenance storage, training and preparation.

The Ford government released receipts for the private jet purchased and later sold.

A Ministrty of Natural Resources receipt to Bombardier.

Plane purchase hidden from public

While the public didn’t hear about the Ford government buying what the opposition smartly called the “Gravy Plane” until April 17, the documents asking for payment date back to January of 2026. An invoice asking for a deposit of $500,000 US was sent on Jan. 19 to the Ministry of Natural Resources, asking for a deposit to be paid to the Bank of America Texas in Dallas.

It’s an odd transaction for a plane being sold by a company based in Montreal to a government department based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. It’s also odd that Ford didn’t put this purchase in his budget in March considering they made a downpayment in January.

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The original purchase price for the plane was $21 million US plus $2,730,000 US for the HST, meaning a final tally of $23,730,000 US or $32,519,990 Canadian based on today’s exchange rates. The price that Bombardier paid to take the 2016 Challenger back into their inventory was the exact same price that the province had paid to acquire the plane.

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Ford never positioned the plane purchase

The plane was positioned as a way to allow Premier Ford, and others, to get around the province and the continent more effectively. Despite the public outrage over the purchase of the plane, there is a strong argument in favour of the premier of Ontario having access to a jet like this.

Getting to many parts of the province is difficult. In many places, there is one flight a day, meaning that visiting more remote parts of the province is difficult. Travel rules also mean that the premier, when flying commercial, needs to show up at the airport hours ahead of time and sit in an airport where he can’t conduct government business in the airport lounge.

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The Province of Ontario is a $246-billion-a-year corporation, its revenue is bigger than the big five banks in Canada combined. Having Ford, or any premier, sit around rather than making them work harder and more effectively makes no sense.

Ford never made the argument for the jet, nor did anyone in his government. Instead, they caved as soon as Ford’s phone started getting angry calls and texts. They leaked the jet purchase to the Toronto Star, which published the first story on Friday, April 17, and Ford issued a statement on Sunday, April 19 that he was cancelling the purchase.

Opposition is never happy

For the last three weeks, the opposition has hounded Ford to release the receipts to show he had returned the plane.

After he did, they blasted him nonetheless.

“Once again, this premier and his Conservative caucus have shown the people that they have no respect for taxpayer dollars,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.

“It doesn’t matter if they sold it: Doug Ford and his Conservative government will always own this private jet,” said interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.

The plane has been returned, in the grand scheme of things the taxpayer will barely notice, but Doug Ford has taken major hit to his reputation.

Will he recover? Voters and time will tell.

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