BC Says US Has Paused Columbia River Treaty Talks as Trade Tensions Grow

British Columbia’s Energy Ministry says the United States has paused negotiations with Canada on the wide-reaching Columbia River Treaty that regulates everything from flood control and power generation to water supply and salmon restoration in the region.

The ministry says in a news release that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration “is conducting a broad review of its international engagement.”

The two countries reached an in-principle deal on a new version of the decades-old treaty last July, and while officials from both countries pushed for its finalization before Trump took office in January, the treaty’s fate remains unsettled.

The Columbia River’s headwaters are in British Columbia before it flows down into the states of Washington and Oregon.

The stoppage in talks comes amid trade tensions between Canada and the United States, and the Globe and Mail newspaper reported that Trump called the treaty unfair to the United States in a call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February.

B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix says he will be hosting a virtual information session to update residents about the status of treaty talks on March 25 “in light of new developments from the U.S.”

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The ministry also says it will schedule in-person community meetings that were originally planned for earlier this year “once there is more clarity about next steps on the path to modernizing the treaty.”

The original treaty was signed in 1961 after a flood in 1948 devastated communities in the region, and B.C. First Nations have been calling for the new treaty to support restoration of salmon runs that have been blocked by dams in the United States.