Holt hesitates to use N.B.'s most powerful trade lever: electricity

New Brunswick's most powerful lever in Canada's trade war with the United States is found mostly along the province's back roads, cutting through forests and across fields rarely seen by most residents.

That lever — a series of N.B. Power transmission lines running to the border with Maine —  is one that, so far, Premier Susan Holt is opting not to use to strike back. 

"Our government is using every tool in our toolbox to protect New Brunswick workers and our economy," Holt said last week when she rolled out her action plan in response to President Donald Trump's 25 per cent tariffs on most imports from Canada.

But not every tool. Not exactly.

Holt promised to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars helping hard-hit companies and workers absorb the impact of the tariffs. 

She avoided a riskier, more painful — but possibly more effective — option.

In northern and eastern Maine, 58,000 people rely on electricity from N.B. Power to keep their lights on and their homes warm.

They're not connected to the large-scale regional power grid in the southern part of the state.

They have nowhere else to go for power.

"Electrically, northern and eastern Maine are part of Canada, not part of the rest of the United States," says Bill Harwood, a former public advocate who represented state residents at energy regulatory hearings.

"They are integrated into the New Brunswick system and the electricity comes from New Brunswick."

Four local utilities are now working through what Trump's tariffs on Canadian imports will cost them — and how to pass those costs onto their customers.

If Holt slapped an additional surcharge on that electricity, it would increase the pain even more.

"A lot of this is unknown," said Greg Sherman, the general manager of Houlton Water Company, which serves 5,500 customers in and around Houlton.