{"id":182039,"date":"2026-08-25T09:29:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/182039\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T09:29:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:29:46","slug":"ontario-slaps-25-tax-increase-on-electricity-exports-to-us-in-response-to-trumps-trade-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/182039\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario slaps 25% tax increase on electricity exports to US in response to Trump’s trade war"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Ontario\u2019s premier, the leader of Canada\u2019s<\/a> most populous province, announced that effective Monday it is charging 25% more for electricity to 1.5 million American homes and businesses in response to U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s trade war.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not hesitate to increase this charge. If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,\u201d Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference in Toronto.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ontario<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford holds a news conference regarding the new tariffs that the United States has placed on Canada, at Queen\u2019s Park in Toronto on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford holds a news conference regarding the new tariffs that the United States has placed on Canada, at Queen\u2019s Park in Toronto on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n

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\u201cBelieve me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people who didn\u2019t start this trade war. It\u2019s one person who is responsible, it\u2019s President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford said Ontario\u2019s tariff would remain in place despite the one-month reprieve<\/a> from Trump, noting a one-month pause means nothing but more uncertainty. Quebec is also considering taking similar measures with electricity exports to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Minnesota says Ontario tariff will have minimal impact<\/p>\n

Minnesota receives only a small share of its electricity from Ontario, but Democratic Gov. Tim Walz was sharply critical of Trump\u2019s actions that led to Monday\u2019s announcement from Ford.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo\/Luis M. Alvarez)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo\/Luis M. Alvarez)<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe first victims of Trump\u2019s Trade war? Minnesotans struggling to pay their skyrocketing electric bill,\u201d Walz said on X with a link to a story about Ontario\u2019s move. \u201cMinnesotans cannot afford Trump\u2019s billionaire-run economy. We have to put a stop to this madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a brief press availability later Monday, Walz acknowledged that Minnesota doesn\u2019t get a lot of electricity from Ontario, but he\u2019s worried about Manitoba following suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo look, even if it were one megawatt, this is totally unnecessary. And the fact of the matter is, it doesn\u2019t impact Donald Trump one bit. It impacts ratepayers in Minnesota. For what? These are our friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Walz said he\u2019s even more worried about the impact on Minnesota if Canadian potash fertilizer gets caught up in the trade war. \u201cIf it starts with this, the one that I\u2019m really worried about is potash, when it comes behind it. If they do potash, that\u2019s a big one on agriculture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Walz said he discussed these concerns last week when he spoke with the premiers of Ontario and Manitoba. He said they told him the dispute is broader than just their trading relations with Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very clear that it\u2019s not Minnesota — we\u2019re huge trading partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota Power, the main electrical utility serving the part of Minnesota that borders Ontario, gets only a \u201cvery small\u201d proportion of its power from the province, company spokesperson Amy Rutledge said.<\/p>\n

Minnesota Power bought only about $300,000 worth of electricity from Ontario last year, and only for four months out of the year. The utility serves over 150,000 customers, mostly with power it generates itself in Minnesota, she said. While it gets about 11% of its power supply from Manitoba Hydro, she said, that\u2019s not affected by Ontario\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Ontario slaps 25% tax increase on electricity exports to US in response to Trump\u2019s trade war\n <\/p>\n

At a news conference, Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he\u2019s putting a 25 percent tax hike on electricity exports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really expect any impact on our customers to be negligible,\u201d Rutledge said.<\/p>\n

Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the organization that manages a regional power grid that stretches from Manitoba to Minnesota to Louisiana, also expects little effect, spokesman Brandon Morris said. MISO gets under half its power from Canada, and less than half of that comes from Ontario, he said.<\/p>\n

Michigan worries about reliability of electric grid now <\/p>\n

Matt Helms, public information of officer for the Michigan Public Service Commission, said the impact on Michigan customers is likely to be \u201csmall\u201d and most of Michigan\u2019s electricity is produced by utility companies in the state or through long-term contracts. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Sunlight<\/p>\n

Sunlight shines through the flags of Canada and the United States, held together by a protester outside on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Feb. 1, 2025.(Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press via AP, File)<\/p>\n

Sunlight shines through the flags of Canada and the United States, held together by a protester outside on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Feb. 1, 2025.(Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press via AP, File)<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sign is posted on a wine shelves at an LCBO, the government-run liquor stores where most wine and spirits in the province are purchased, Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo\/Jill Colvin)<\/p>\n

A sign is posted on a wine shelves at an LCBO, the government-run liquor stores where most wine and spirits in the province are purchased, Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo\/Jill Colvin)<\/p>\n

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Of greater concern to the commission is the reliability of the electric grid, as electricity flows between the U.S. and Canada as part of an interconnected grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny action to limit or disrupt these flows would remove a layer of protection and make all of us \u2014 Canadians and Americans alike \u2014 more vulnerable to grid-scale outages,\u201d Helms said. <\/p>\n

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she has ordered state energy officials to conduct a review on how much the tariffs could drive up electricity and other energy costs in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese federal tariffs have been poorly conceived from the start: crafted in secret with no transparency and no clear economic rationale, they\u2019ve only served to destabilize our capital markets and create uncertainty among New York families and businesses,\u201d said Hochul, a Democrat.<\/p>\n

Trade war intensifies <\/p>\n

The new surcharge is in addition to the federal government\u2019s initial $30 billion Canadian dollars ($21 billion) worth of retaliatory tariffs applied on items like American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles and certain pulp and paper products.<\/p>\n

Trump launched a new trade war<\/a> last week by imposing tariffs against Washington\u2019s three biggest trading partners, drawing immediate retaliation from Mexico<\/a>, Canada and China<\/a> and sending financial markets into a tailspin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs to end. Until these tariffs are off the table, until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Ontario\u2019s premier, the leader of Canada\u2019s most populous province, announced that effective Monday it is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[57534,28066,57536,525,17,162,4079,2039,592,5855,434,57272,57535,24271,8433,57533,94,113,8156,43410,3942,30,594,218],"class_list":["post-182039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-amy-rutledge","tag-ap-top-news","tag-brandon-morris","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-ford","tag-economic-policy","tag-general-news","tag-government-policy","tag-international-trade","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-matt-helms","tag-mi-state-wire","tag-mn-state-wire","tag-ny-state-wire","tag-ontario","tag-politics","tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","tag-tim-walz","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}