Ontario will impose a 25 per cent tariff on power it sends to 1.5 million homes in Minnesota, Michigan and New York in response to fresh United States levies, Premier Doug Ford announced Tuesday.

Ford has written letters to the governors of those states to inform them of the surcharge, he told reporters at the provincial legislature. “If these tariffs persist, if the Trump administration follows through on any more tariffs, we will immediately apply a 25 per cent surcharge on the electricity we export,” Ford told reporters at the provincial legislature. “We will not hesitate to shut off their power as well.”

The export tax on electricity is retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent duties on most imports from Canada that went into effect earlier Tuesday.

A representative for the premier said the tax would not be imposed today. The tax was reported earlier in the Wall Street Journal. 

The province has also banned all U.S.-based companies from government contracts, and Ford has ended his province’s contract with Starlink, the Elon Musk-controlled satellite network. “It’s done; it’s gone,” he said of the deal.

Ford also said he was prepared to cut off nickel exports to the U.S. “It will shut down manufacturing because 50 per cent of the nickel you use is coming out of Ontario,” the provincial leader said Monday in an interview with NBC News.

Canada implemented counter-tariffs Tuesday. The first stage places 25 per cent tariffs on about $30 billion worth of goods from U.S. exporters. A second round of tariffs at the same rate will be placed on $125 billion of products in three weeks — a list that will include big-ticket items like cars, trucks, steel and aluminum.

The energy tariffs come as states including New York try to clean up their power grids and add capacity to meet surging demand from artificial intelligence and electric cars.

Bloomberg.com