Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is partnering with Elon Musk’s Starlink to help rural communities in the province connect to high-speed internet.

The pilot program launched on November 16 and runs until March 31, 2024. 

Houses and businesses can receive rebates on Starlink hardware

According to the Alberta government’s website, eligible households and businesses can receive a rebate on purchased Starlink hardware to a maximum of $1,000. Installation and monthly fees are not eligible for the rebate.

Eligible households and businesses must be within the specified geographic boundaries, which are in southern Alberta near the US border. They must also be in need of upgraded internet service. 

Those who want to receive the rebate must purchase the Starlink hardware between November 16, 2023 and February 16, 2024 and submit their rebate application during the period of December 15, 2023 to March 31, 2024.

The Alberta government noted that currently, “the only high-speed, low-latency service in Alberta is Starlink by SpaceX. In the future, other providers, such as Telesat’s Lightspeed and Amazon’s Kuiper, may offer services in Alberta and may qualify for a future rebate program.”

Smith called on Musk to help Alberta bypass Trudeau’s Bill C-11

Last year, prior to her premiership, Smith called on Musk to help Alberta bypass Bill C-11, now known as the Online Streaming Act.

“Hey, Elon Musk. I’m running to be the Premier of Alberta. We still value free speech here. Could Alberta set up an independent ISP using Starlink to bypass the new Justin Trudeau internet censorship law?” Danielle Smith tweeted at the time.

On Jordan Peterson’s podcast last year, Smith praised Elon Musk’s purchasing of Twitter (now known as X).

“Quite frankly, Elon Musk taking over Twitter I think is going to be a net positive for humanity… we are going to be able to finally have some genuine balance in the discussion that we haven’t had for probably about a decade,” Smith said.