Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s move to impose a surcharge on electricity flowing south of the border seems to have gotten the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump turned his sights on the new levy in a late night post on his Truth Social platform.
“Despite the fact that Canada is charging the USA from 250% to 390% Tariffs on many of our farm products, Ontario just announced a 25% surcharge on “electricity,” of all things, and your not even allowed to do that,” he wrote.
It is not entirely clear what Trump meant by saying Ontario is “not even allowed to do that.”
“Because our Tariffs are reciprocal, we’ll just get it all back on April 2. Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer. We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out,” he continued.
Trump launched a trade war against Canada shortly after taking office, despite a longstanding economic, cultural and military alliance between the neighbouring nations. His administration has said it will impose 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian goods and 10 per cent on energy.
Amid intensely negative stock market reaction, Trump temporarily paused implementation of the tariffs on Canadian exports “compliant” with the terms of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) until April 2.
The Trump administration’s policy targeting Canadian goods contravenes CUSMA, a free trade deal that Trump himself spearheaded and a few years ago called “the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA.” It also comes as Trump and some of his closest aides make repeated overtures threatening Canada’s territorial sovereignty.
Both Ontario and the federal government have said they will move ahead with retaliatory measures until the tariffs are entirely off the table.
On Monday, Ford announced his government would implement a 25 per cent surcharge on Ontario-generated electricity purchased by New York, Michigan and Minnesota.
Ontario provides power to roughly 1.5 million customers in those northern border states, which sometimes also re-sell that electricity to even more states, primarily in the northeast.
The province estimates the levy will generate up to $400,000 per day, depending on the season. That money will be used to reduce power bills for ratepayers in Ontario, according to the Ministry of Energy.
Ford also repeated his threat to entirely cut off the flow of electricity from Ontario to the U.S., a process that would likely require the province to significantly ramp down its own power generation.
In addition to the surcharge, Ontario has taken American booze off LCBO shelves and banned U.S. companies from government procurement contracts, while the federal government has imposed an initial round of retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. goods.
CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp breaks down how Doug Ford’s plan to impose a levy on electricity could affect the U.S.
