The US Isn’t Coming for Canada’s Water, Says Dix

B.C. cabinet minister Adrian Dix is dismissing concerns that the United States is coming for Canada’s water after the Trump administration paused negotiations on renewing the Columbia River Treaty.

But Dix said he is concerned about the attacks on Canadian sovereignty since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office earlier this year and he acknowledged the uncertainty about the future of the 60-year-old treaty.

"This idea that somehow there’s some supply of water along the Columbia River that they can use in El Paso or something is just not accurate and is not really a concern," said Dix, minister for energy and climate solutions.

The Columbia River basin covers some 668,000 square kilometres of southeastern B.C., Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana and empties into the Pacific Ocean through the U.S.

"The water flows," Dix said. "They’re able to control the movement of water through their dams and their systems. Once it goes into the United States, the water is theirs."

The Columbia River Treaty, in place since 1964, grew out of a 1948 flood that killed up to 102 Americans and destroyed the city of Vanport, Oregon.

Under the treaty’s terms the Duncan, Hugh L. Keenleyside and Mica dams were built in B.C. and the Libby Dam in the U.S., flooding some 110,000 hectares in Canada and displacing some 2,000 residents.

As B.C.’s website about the treaty puts it, "First Nations and public consultation and mitigation at the time could be considered inadequate to non-existent by today’s standards, and feelings of hurt remain to this day."

In exchange the U.S. paid Canada $64 million for 60 years of flood control plus half of the revenue from power that could be produced in the U.S. thanks to the management of flow that the treaty allowed.

"The Columbia River Treaty has huge advantages for Canada," said Dix. "It has huge advantages, even bigger advantages some have argued, for the United States."

When Trump became president earlier this year negotiations on renewing the treaty were well under way, with work going back more than a decade. Formal negotiations started in 2018. By last summer the sides had reached an agreement in principle.

Progress stalled after the U.S. election and according to the B.C. government "the U.S. administration said it is conducting a broad review of its international engagement."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, which is leading the U.S. side in the negotiations, declined to comment.

It is normal for there to be a break when there’s a change in administration, said Dix. There was a pause in 2021 as well after Joe Biden became president, he said.

"What’s different here is the vicious anti-Canadian attacks that have been made on us on all these issues and they do cause concerns," Dix said.

Since becoming president Trump has talked about using economic coercion to make Canada part of the U.S. and has threatened various tariffs on Canadian goods, some of which he has followed through on. He has also talked about ripping up the 1908 treaty that finalized the border between the U.S. and Canada.

Dix said Canadians are angry about the Trump administration’s unprecedented attack on Canada and want to take action. The B.C. government will fight any threats of annexation, he added, including in the Columbia River Treaty negotiations.

The B.C. government will continue talking to communities affected by the Columbia River Treaty negotiations and is holding an online information session Tuesday night, he said.

In-person sessions were also planned for communities early this year, but those are delayed, the province says. They "will be confirmed once there is more clarity about next steps on the path to modernizing the treaty."

Updating the treaty is in the interests of both sides, First Nations and communities in the Columbia River basin, Dix said. It is not B.C.’s intention to end the treaty and he doesn’t understand that to be the intention of the U.S. government either.

But at a time when the Trump administration has shown itself unconcerned about following either its own domestic laws or international agreements, the province needs to be ready for anything.