Eby says electricity export tariffs similar to Ontario’s are not ‘priority’ for B.C.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier David Eby says the province has no plan to follow Ontario and levy a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to the United States.

Eby says imposing such a fee “is not currently a priority,” with efforts focused on new legislation in coming days that would give the province the ability to impose fees on U.S. commercial trucks travelling to Alaska via B.C.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has committed to imposing a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity delivered to 1.5 million Americans in Minnesota, New York and Michigan starting Monday as a response to the Trump tariffs.

Eby, however, says B.C. is “incredibly tightly integrated” with the power supply market along the U.S. West Coast.

He says the province buys electricity from the United States when it’s cheap and sells when it’s expensive — a trade that’s worth “some years about $1 billion” for the Canadian side.

He says that’s why the legislation will first target Alaska, where the governor, U.S. representative and both U.S. senators are from Trump’s Republican party.

“It’s clear that we could be — if required — fully self-sustaining in terms of our electricity supporting residential and industrial customers,” Eby told the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.

“But it would not be without profound and significant cost to ratepayers, both industrial and residential, and major impacts of drawing down reservoirs and other pieces like that.

“So the goal here is to identify those things that we can do that the Americans really feel with minimal impact on British Columbians, and those will be the low-hanging fruit.”

But Eby also said B.C. was a team player and would be willing to impose an electricity export surcharge if such actions were to be required as part of a national response.

“What we ask is only that our burden that we take on is proportionate to the burden taken on by other provinces, and that the federal government is there to support us … equally to other provinces,” he said.

The Canada Energy Regulator says on its website that B.C. is typically one of Canada’s four largest electricity exporting provinces alongside Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba, with exported power typically going to the states of Washington, Oregon and California.

However, B.C. has been a net importer of electricity from the United States since 2023 due in large part to drought conditions that limit the province’s ability to generate power through its hydro systems.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2025.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press