Ontario hit three northern U.S. states with 25 percent price hikes for electricity on Monday — and the Canadian province’s premier warned that he might even cut off the power flows completely until President Donald Trump backs off his tariff threats.
“Let me be clear, I will not hesitate to increase this charge, if necessary,” Premier Doug Ford said. “If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely.”
The new surcharges, which Ford had vowed to impose last week in response to Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs against Canada and Mexico, went ahead as scheduled Monday even after the White House announced a pause in its plans. The hikes will increase power costs for 1.5 million people across Minnesota, Michigan and New York, something state officials fear could also hurt grid reliability.
The new surcharge on power exports amounts to C$10, or about $7 in U.S. currency, per megawatt-hour. Ford estimated that the hike could add $100 per month to household power bills in those states, and cost each state $400,000 per day.
Also on Monday, The Globe and Mail reported that Quebec’s provincial government was considering halting hydropower exports to the spot market in the U.S. Northeast, and considering options regarding supply contracts with Massachusetts and New York slated to take effect in 15 months.
Ford said he will not stop the escalation in the trade standoff until the threat of U.S. tariffs has vanished.
“Until these tariffs are off the table, until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent,” he said Monday. “We will not back down. Pausing some tariffs, making last minute exemptions — it won’t cut it. We need to end the chaos once and for all.”
In an email, White House spokesperson Kush Desai blasted the province’s move.
“Instead of retaliation, Canada should focus on shoring up border security and cracking down on the drugs that are killing tens of thousands of Americans every year,” Desai said.
In a post on Bluesky issued Monday, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called Minnesotans struggling to pay their power bills the “first victims of Trump’s trade war.”
“Minnesota cannot afford Trump’s billionaire-run economy. We have to put a stop to this madness,” he wrote.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, blasted the tariffs in a statement as “poorly conceived from the start.”
“This is a textbook example of bad public policy and I’m calling on President Trump to immediately rescind his tariffs before they inflict further damage on working families — and if he won’t act, Congress must,” she said. “The people of New York deserve transparency and accountability. We will not allow President Trump and Congressional Republicans to play politics with our energy security while hardworking New Yorkers foot the bill.”
Hochul and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also sent a letter to the state’s utility regulators Monday, calling for “an urgent review to ensure transparency on the real cost to consumers.”
In a statement released on Monday by the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates the state’s utilities, the agency said it’s concerned about the new fee’s impact on consumer power bills, but added that the greater risk is to grid reliability.
“While the vast majority of Michigan’s electricity is either produced by the electric utilities or purchased under long-term power contracts, the imposition of these tariffs could have some impact on prices in the regional energy markets, though the ultimate impact on Michigan customers is likely to be small,” the statement read. “Of greater concern is the stability of the electric grid. There are significant flows across the border because of the interconnected grids between the two countries.”
Any disruption to those flows makes both the Canadian and U.S. grids “more vulnerable to grid-scale outages,” the commission said.
The New York Independent System Operator is still reviewing the impact of the tariffs, according to a statement.
