B.C. energy minister says Columbia River Treaty not a ’bargaining chip’ in U.S. trade dispute

VICTORIA — B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix says U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims about Canada supplying water through the Columbia River Treaty are “not accurate,” and the U.S. can manage the water that flows over the border “however they see fit.”

Dix says there has been speculation about how the treaty could potentially be used as a “bargaining chip” in the trade war with the U.S., but with a 10-year termination provision, he notes that “Canadian action to terminate the treaty would have little effect on the current dispute.”

Dix says there have been long-standing cross-border efforts to modernize the treaty, and though it’s not unusual for new American administrations to review international processes, he says the treaty modernization process comes amid “vicious anti-Canadian attacks” by the Trump administration.

The energy minister says Trump’s comments about the U.S. taking water from Canada through a “giant faucet” are not accurate because the Columbia River flows over the border and into the U.S., “and at that point it becomes their water to manage.”

Dix made the comments during an online information session about the treaty modernization process, which has been ongoing since 2018 under the first Trump administration.

Dix says reaching an “agreement in principle” with the U.S. government under former president Joe Biden in July 2024 showed there is “common ground between U.S. and Canadian interests and a clear path forward to modernizing the Columbia River Treaty in a way that would strike a fair balance and benefit both countries.”

The treaty was originally signed in 1961 after devastating flooding in 1948 destroyed and damaged communities in the Columbia River Basin, mostly in the United States, killing dozens of people in the area.

To address flood control as well as the growing need for electricity in the Pacific Northwest, Canada and the U.S. entered into a treaty that allowed for three dams to be built in B.C., with a fourth constructed south of the border, but with the potential to flood into B.C.

The Columbia River’s headwaters are in B.C. before they flow down into the states of Washington and Oregon.

The provincial government says the agreement and the resulting dams “vastly reduced flood risks” while creating projects that “provide approximately half of the potential generation” of electricity in B.C.

But it also flooded 1,100 square kilometres of land that displaced more than 2,000 residents as well as First Nations communities.

First Nations groups have been vocal in wanting to be involved in the negotiations for the updated treaty, with the restoration of lost salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin among their concerns.