Holt defends N.B.'s 'cooler heads' approach on electricity sales to U.S.
Premier says she won’t cut off power to Maine or apply surcharge ‘just for show’
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.
In a week that saw Ontario Premier Doug Ford secure a meeting with Trump administration officials in Washington after his electricity threat, Holt said she would not give in to the temptation to "lash out" at the United States.
She said adding a surcharge to N.B. Power's electricity exports, or cutting them off altogether, might lead U.S. utilities to do the same to New Brunswick when it needs to import electricity.
"If I'm going to ask New Brunswickers to go through pain that I'm going to put on them, it better be because that's going to yield a result of reducing or eliminating the tariffs that the Americans have put in place, and not just for show," she said.
"I'm not certain that adding a surcharge to what the folks in Maine experience is going to yield a result from the White House, and instead will just cause damage to a relationship that we want to protect in the long run."
Ford's announcement Monday of a 25-per-cent surcharge on Ontario's electricity exports to three U.S. states provoked an angry reaction from President Donald Trump.
Trump said he would double some planned tariffs on Canadian exports, then backed down after Ford agreed to suspend the surcharge and travel to Washington to meet with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
"The president woke up this morning and he saw it and he jumped right on it," Lutnick told CBS News earlier this week.
But Holt said she would prefer to let "cooler heads prevail" rather than poke the U.S. president into a reaction.
About 58,000 Maine residents are customers of four local utilities that rely exclusively on N.B. Power for electricity.
They are not connected to the larger regional power grid in the southern part of the state, leaving them nowhere else to go to turn on their lights and heat their homes.
Holt said leveraging that fact might prompt U.S. policymakers to extend that grid to northern areas of the state, which would mean a loss of customers — and revenue — for N.B. Power.
"These are decisions that need to be taken very carefully. They can't be made as a knee-jerk situation, because our situation here in New Brunswick is unique."
The utility's already precarious financial position makes it even harder to contemplate that risk, the premier acknowledged.
She said her government is looking at "many different options" to help the utility deal with a $5 billion debt that has forced it to hit customers with large rate increase last year and this year.
"The status quo is no longer an option with N.B. Power," she said.
That could include a rate freeze, rebates, easing the Crown corporation's debt-reduction targets, moving some of its debt onto the government's accounts or even selling the utility.
"That's on the table," she said of a possible sale.
A previous Liberal government's attempt to sell the utility to Hydro-Quebec in 2009 prompted a widespread popular backlash in the province and contributed to the party's defeat in an election the following year.
Holt did not announce any new provincial countermeasures to the U.S. tariffs Thursday, acknowledging that her government does not have "a dozen tools at our disposal."
She said American alcohol remains off the shelves in N.B. Liquor stores and the government has "looked at" replacing service contracts it has with U.S. companies, once it sorts out the cost implications and the availability of alternative suppliers.
A spokesperson said later in the day, however, that no contracts have been cancelled to date.
Holt also said officials would "look at" whether to keep the Tesla electric cars in the government fleet — referring to the company, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, as among "companies seeking to do New Brunswickers harm."
Holt said she would use the weekly news conferences "to talk about the things you want to talk about, and to provide a forum for regular communication during a time of consistent uncertainty. … It's my job to connect with New Brunswickers in a time of uncertainty."
She also referred to how stressful the trade war is and, after providing a toll-free phone number for mental health support, urged New Brunswickers "to be with your friends, to get outdoors, to clear your head, to turn off the news and to reach out to the people around you."
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