British Columbia’s Department of Energy said the U.S. has suspended negotiations on Canada’s extensive Columbia River treaty, which provides for everything from flood control and power generation to water supply and salmon repair in the area.
The ministry said in a press release that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration “is conducting extensive review of its international engagement.”
The two countries reached a new version of the deal on principles at the decades treaty last July, and the fate of the treaty remains unresolved, despite officials from both countries working to complete the finalization before Trump took office in January.
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The source of the Columbia River is in British Columbia and then flows into Washington and Oregon.
Trade tensions between Canada and the United States were in negotiations, and the Globe reported that Trump called the treaty an unfair American in February on a phone call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
British Columbia Energy Secretary Adrian Dix said he will hold a virtual information conference to introduce residents to the status of the March 25 treaty talks “in light of new developments in the United States”
The ministry also said it would schedule in-person community meetings originally planned earlier this year to “once there is a clearer clarity on the path to modernizing the treaty next.”
The original treaty was signed in 1961 and suffered devastated community floods in the area in 1948, and the BC Natives have been calling for the new treaty to support the resumption of the salmon run at the U.S. dam blockade.
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
