Ontario’s 1-day surcharge on U.S. energy exports raised $260K

A short-lived Ontario energy surcharge, which sparked a fierce backlash from U.S. President Donald Trump and netted Doug Ford a meeting in Washington, D.C., raised $260,000, according to the government.

On March 10, Ford held a news conference to announce he was placing a 25-per cent charge on electricity sent from Ontario to New York, Michigan and Minnesota.

The move was part of a suite of retaliatory measures after U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum were announced.

The province said the energy charge would net up to $400,000 per day depending on demand and said it would stay in place until tariffs on Canadian goods imported to the U.S. were removed.

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The announcement sparked a furious news cycle as Ford, who had been lobbying the White House for months, finally caught Trump’s attention.

Trump’s officials first called the move “egregious and insulting” and said 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum would be doubled to 50 per cent in response.

Ford then received a call from U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, who invited him to a meeting in Washington, D.C. The premier said the offer was “an olive branch” and dropped the surcharge.

Trump stood down his plan to double tariffs on Canadian metals but kept the 25 per cent rate in place, swerving between calling the surcharge Ontario’s “little threat” and Ford a “strong man.”

Now, a month later with the Ontario energy market’s monthly calculations complete, the province said its short-lived measure netted $260,000 on 26,000 MWh of energy sold to the U.S. on Monday, March 10.

The money will be held by the agency that manages Ontario’s energy grid for now while the government decides how to spend the money.

The Ford government has not addressed how it plans to use the funds from the surcharge.

“The province will use these revenues to support Ontario workers, families and businesses,” a spokesperson for the Minister of Energy said.