Rows of power lines are shown in Mississauga, Ont., on Aug. 19, 2019.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Canadian provinces ramped up retaliatory trade measures despite the White House’s new one-month reprieve on tariffs for imports covered under the existing North American trade deal, as premiers called on U.S. President Donald Trump to permanently withdraw his threat of levies.
On Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that a 25-per-cent charge on his province’s electricity exports to the U.S. is set to take effect Monday, while British Columbia Premier David Eby promised legislation that will allow his government to apply fees to commercial trucks that transit through B.C. on their way to Alaska.
Mr. Ford confirmed to reporters at Queen’s Park that he would make good on his repeated threats to raise power costs for Americans in retaliation for Mr. Trump’s 25-per-cent tariffs on most Canadian imports, some of which are now delayed until April 2.
Ontario’s move affects New York State, Michigan and Minnesota, where the province says it sends about $700-million worth of electricity a year – enough to power about 1.5 million homes. However, neither Mr. Ford nor his office, nor his Energy Minister, Stephen Lecce, would answer questions from reporters on how the government intended to implement the surcharge.
Earlier this week, Mr. Lecce had told The Globe and Mail that adding a per-megawatt surcharge on power exports would require passing legislation. That isn’t possible until the Ontario Legislature returns after last week’s provincial election, sometime after March 17. On Tuesday, Mr. Ford said he had instructed officials to find a way to impose the charge more quickly.
The Ontario Premier said the added surcharge for power sent to the U.S. would remain until the threat of any U.S. tariffs on Canada is completely withdrawn.
“We have to follow through, until he drops the tariffs completely,” he said. “You touch a stove once, you get burned. You don’t touch that stove again.”
Like Ontario, B.C. pulled U.S. liquor from its publicly owned liquor store shelves on Tuesday, and Mr. Eby agreed such measures should remain in place.
“The President is sowing uncertainty and chaos, attempting to undermine our economy by implementing tariffs and then quickly pulling them off,” the B.C. Premier said while standing in front of the B.C. Legislature.
“We’re going to ensure that the Americans understand how pissed off we are, how unified we are, how committed we are to working as a country to stand up for each other and our own independence on our own two feet. And I say we don’t let up until the President takes the threat off the table.”
Mr. Eby said his government will introduce “unprecedented” legislation shortly that will give his cabinet wide-ranging powers to respond to trade threats as they arise. The law would would provide the legislative authority for B.C. to remove its interprovincial trade barriers and to “give government flexibility to respond rapidly to executive orders from the President as they arise,” he said.
He said that law, if passed, will enable retaliatory measures, including tolls on commercial goods being shipped overland from Washington State to Alaska.
The B.C. Premier hesitated, however, to follow Ontario’s lead on retaliatory electricity tariffs. B.C.’s electricity grid is highly integrated with the Western U.S. states, with purchases going both ways at different times of day. The province is looking at contingency plans that could halt electricity sales to the U.S., he said.
Such a measure would send a strong message to the U.S., as it would create a serious risk in peak times of brownouts and blackouts in the West Coast of that country, he noted. But it would harm the province: “The results are, I will say, mixed for British Columbia.”
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said his government will maintain its ban on American booze despite Mr. Trump’s latest pause on tariffs against Canada.
“A reprieve until April 2 is not good enough,” Mr. Kinew said Thursday afternoon during Question Period at the provincial legislature. “We cannot live as Manitobans with a persistent threat of Donald Trump’s tariff tax.”