In preparation for responding to Trump’s tariffs, Ford threatens to shut off Ontario’s electricity exports to U.S.
Canada’s provincial governments were readying their responses after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that his threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico were going ahead Tuesday.
In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford took to a U.S. TV network to warn that Americans as well as Canadians would face economic harm from the 25-per-cent tariffs, which were set to apply across the board to most Canadian exports. In British Columbia, which tables its budget Tuesday, the province’s Finance Minister said the fiscal plan would meet the moment without deep cuts to spending.
Other provinces in recent weeks have unveiled budgets that include contingency funds and financial relief for taxpayers, as premiers work to gird against knock-on effects that remain hard to quantify.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press Now on Monday afternoon, Mr. Ford threatened to shut off his province’s electricity exports to the U.S. and to block shipments of Ontario’s high-grade nickel, which he said provides 50 per cent of U.S. supplies. He warned it would “shut down manufacturing” south of the border.
Michigan’s auto plants, unable to afford Canadian parts, would grind to a halt within a week, he said, while prices for U.S consumers would rise, and markets would crash.
“We do not want to do this,” Mr. Ford said. “We love the American people. We love the U.S. But when one person attacks our country, unprovoked, then we’re going to respond. And we’re going to respond like the U.S. has never seen before.”
Mr. Ford also suggested that Saskatchewan’s potash, crucial for American farmers to fertilize their fields, as well as its uranium, could be used as trade retaliation – even though Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have spoken out against using their provinces’ natural resources in a trade war.
In B.C., Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, who is set to deliver a budget that had been sent to the printers before Mr. Trump’s comments, said it will not deliver steep spending cuts.
The budget will have to include enough flexibility to withstand whatever the U.S. trade war brings in the year ahead, she said. That flexibility is likely in the form of hefty contingency funds, as both Alberta and Nova Scotia had in their recent budgets.
“We don’t know day to day or even hour to hour what President Trump will decide to do, but one thing we do know is that [Tuesday] we will introduce a budget that meets this moment with investments and services that British Columbians can rely on,” Ms. Bailey told reporters in Victoria.
While other provinces have looked to tax cuts and other consumer relief, the B.C. government abandoned its election pledge to deliver a $1,000 grocery rebate to households. Ms. Bailey said the province cannot afford to fulfill the promise because of the trade turmoil created by Mr. Trump.
Earlier on Monday, Mr. Ford – facing reporters for the first time after his re-election win last Thursday – warned Mr. Trump that he was in for a fight if he went ahead with the tariffs.
“I’ll fight tooth and nail. I’m not going to roll over and get annihilated,” he said. “I’ll fight right to the death. Not that there’s going to be any deaths, but, you know the economy. … He has no idea. He has absolutely no idea.”
Speaking at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada international mining industry conference in Toronto, he reiterated his threat to cut off Ontario’s electricity exports to New York, Minnesota and Michigan, or add a provincial surcharge on that energy, while urging other provinces to do the same.
Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce said his officials have drawn up plans to impose escalating per-megawatt surcharges on electricity exports, with cutting off the flow of energy as a last resort. In an interview, he said this move would only be enacted after U.S. tariffs had been imposed for a period of time.
Mr. Ford also repeated his vow to cancel a $100-million deal Ontario signed with Starlink – a company controlled by Trump ally Elon Musk – and to ban U.S. companies from competing for provincial contracts.
Mr. Ford spent the last month campaigning for re-election on a one-note platform aimed at fighting Mr. Trump, arguing for a strong national response with dollar-for-dollar tariffs while threatening to pull U.S. booze off liquor-store shelves. Other premiers, including in Quebec, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, have made similar threats.
Saskatchewan’s Premier said on Monday that although he has been co-ordinating with other provinces and the federal government on a national plan toward U.S. tariffs, he is now also considering a separate provincial response.
“We remain committed to free and fair trade between Canada and the U.S.,” Mr. Moe wrote in a statement to The Globe and Mail. “But should the U.S. proceed with an ill-conceived tariff policy, we will have no choice but to defend Saskatchewan industries and families.”
Last month, Quebec Premier François Legault said the province was putting together programs to help companies grow and diversify their markets in response to planned U.S. tariffs.
Before Mr. Trump’s 30-day pause on tariffs, Mr. Legault had also announced a series of retaliation measures, including removing U.S. liquor from the provincially owned alcohol monopoly, and adding penalties on U.S. companies bidding on government contracts.
With reports from Justine Hunter, Temur Durrani and Frédérick-Xavier D. Plante
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
