OTTAWA—Three key premiers whose provinces generate energy exports dismissed Premier Doug Ford’s suggestion that Canada should slap punitive tariffs on America or shut off electricity, gas and oil shipments to the U.S. in retaliation for Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canadian products.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Quebec Premier François Legault, and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Furey said bluntly they do not support Ford’s threat to “cut off their energy” and make Americans “feel the pain,” made Wednesday night after all 13 premiers met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Canada’s response to Trump, and reiterated by Ontario’s leader Thursday.
Smith dismissed throttling Canadian energy shipments as she unveiled Alberta’s own plan to beef up border security with new provincial sheriff patrol teams to allay Trump’s border concerns.
“Under no circumstances will Alberta agree to cut off oil and gas exports,” Smith said. “We don’t support tariffs. I don’t support tariffs on Canadian goods, and I don’t support tariffs on U.S. goods, because all it does is make life more expensive for everyday Canadians and everyday Americans,” Smith said.
“Instead, we’re taking a diplomatic approach, and we’re meeting with our allies in the U.S. We’re making the case for Alberta oil and gas to be part of the solution to energy affordability, to energy security and to, generally speaking, North American defence security as well,” she said.
Ford floated the idea of cutting off Canadian energy exports to the U.S. and reiterated that call right before Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador unveiled a blockbuster new $225-billion hydroelectricity deal, one that those provinces touted as key to Canada’s renewable energy commitments.
The deal replaces a scorned decades-old contract due to expire in 2041, and requires Quebec to pay 30 times more for thousands of kilowatt hours of power generated from the Churchill Falls plant. It will also see the two provinces develop new hydro power projects along the Churchill River, and generate 2,400 more megawatts for Quebec.
Legault called it an “extraordinary” deal for Quebec that means Labrador hydroelectricity will ramp up from a 17 per cent share of Quebec’s supply to 50 per cent. Furey said the agreement “changes everything.”
“It is a fair deal for both parties. It’s a good commercial deal that recognizes the ills of the past and creates a new path forward for Newfoundland and Labrador, while allowing Quebec some certainty moving forward. So Premier Legault did show us the money,” Furey quipped.
So it was no surprise when both premiers immediately dismissed any call to shut off energy exports to U.S. markets.
Flanked by Legault, Furey said they both “share significant concerns when it comes to the suggestion of tariffs.”
“These tariffs will have significant impact on families and macro economies on both sides of the border. We hope it is just bluster. We’re preparing as if it is not. There will be no winners in a trade war,” Furey said, echoing Smith’s pledge.
“Certainly from Newfoundland and Labrador’s perspective, we have no interest in stopping the flow of oil and gas, our incredibly valuable and now well-sought-after-world-class oil and gas to the United States. Nor do we now have any interest in stopping export of any electrons that could be produced in Labrador to the Northeastern seaboard.”
Legault said he met Trump in Paris last weekend, “and he told me very clearly that we can avoid those tariffs if we do what needs to be done with the borders.”
“He doesn’t want to see any more illegal immigrants coming from Canada to U.S. So I think the best choice right now for Mr. Trudeau is to very fast table a plan with money, with the number of people, to better secure the border. I think we have to do that. It’s a lot better than getting 25-per-cent tariffs starting on Jan. 21. So I prefer that than starting a war and stopping sending energy to (the) United States.”
Furey said he held a call with New England governors earlier this week and “there is a significant degree of concern on both sides of the border.”
“I think we need to bring it really down to a local level, so that the president and decision-makers on both sides understand that this could be incredibly punishing to, not just the economy, but to the tables and the gas tanks and the electricity switches of every household across the northeastern seaboard.”
Alberta’s Smith said her new measures, which include sheriff patrol teams, and a “red zone” within two kilometres of the Alberta-Montana border, had been in the works since 2023 and would have been implemented even without Trump’s threat. However, she said “we will work with our counterparts in Montana in a shared border arrangement so that we can improve public safety crackdown on illegal migrants and illegal drug trafficking.”
Steve Verheul, Canada’s former top trade negotiator, has suggested that Canada could also put export levies on key goods like oil and agricultural commodities, telling Bloomberg it would quickly drive up the cost of fuel and food to American consumers, and could be used as leverage to negotiate a “broader exemption across all the sectors” that may be hit by Trump’s tariffs.
Smith dismissed that, too, as a “terrible idea.”
But at Queen’s Park, Ford did not walk anything back.
He said he’s “sending a message to the U.S.” not to impose tariffs on Canadian goods or else — as a “last resort” — Ontario will strike back.
“We power 1.5 million homes,” Ford said Thursday, referring to the electricity Ontario supplies Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
“If they put on tariffs, it’s going to be unaffordable for Americans to buy electricity,” the premier said, noting his province alone does about $500 billion in annual two-way trade with the U.S. and nine million American jobs depend on trading with Ontario.
“Just like if they put tariffs on the 4.3 million barrels of oil that Alberta is shipping down to the U.S. — if you put 25 per cent increases, every barrel of oil, every gallon of gasoline (goes up) by $1,” he said at Queen’s Park.
Ford noted that “along with the federal government, all the premiers are putting a list together” of American goods that could be targeted with counter-tariffs.
“We can’t just roll over as we’re being under attack and hurting our families and our jobs.”
Trudeau on Monday said Canada would respond to Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican products, as of his first day in office, to force the two border countries to “stop” illegal immigration and fentanyl from entering the U.S.
But it is far from clear what products the Liberal government is looking at using, with Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister, saying only that several premiers suggested critical minerals and metals that the U.S. needs should be included on any “robust” retaliatory tariff list Canada draws up.
