The B.C. government has introduced legislation that would grant cabinet temporary emergency powers to create regulations to respond to U.S. tariffs, including putting tolls on U.S. commercial traffic to Alaska, directing Crown corporations not to buy American goods, and efforts to enhance trade with other provinces. The opposition Conservatives meanwhile say the government shouldn’t be granting itself the extraordinary powers.
The move is a response to tariff measures announced by the United States, including 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada, and a 10 percent tariff on energy, though the United States has since paused some of the tariffs. President Donald Trump has also put a 25 percent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum, and is looking at tariffs on Canadian lumber.
Further retaliatory tariffs could be imposed after April 2, as Trump has directed his officials to review tariff measures on U.S. goods imposed by other countries, including Canada.
“We see this as emergency legislation. This is not everyday legislation. This is not routine legislation,” he said during a March 13 news conference in Victoria.
“This is an emergency situation where we need legislative authority. We need government authority to do something quickly to minimize damage to the economy, to people, and an unpredictable action from an unpredictable president. And so that’s the intent of the legislation,” Eby said.
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“The tools in the legislation are about setting us up to respond quickly and will not have to be used unless the U.S. forces our hand to use them,” Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters at the news conference.
The bill includes a sunset clause that would see the powers given to cabinet end by May 28, 2027, according to a government news release.
Eby said the legislation only allows the government authority to respond if there is a threat to the B.C. economy.
“The bill does require anticipated harm to the B.C. economy. That’s a standard that would have to be defended in front of a judge on judicial review, that there was a reasonable expectation that there was going to be harm caused by a foreign government to the B.C. economy. And the harm that this is intended to be focused on is the president and his executive orders,” Eby said during the news conference.
Eby also said the bill required regulations to be ratified by the legislature.
“The regulations need to be tabled in the legislature. The government is governing with a very slim majority. At any time, members of the Legislative Assembly can decide that this was overreach, collapse the government,” Eby said during the news conference.
Conservative Concerns
However, Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad is calling the legislation “authoritarian.”
“Bill 7 gives BC’s already authoritarian top-down NDP government sweeping, almost unlimited powers with zero oversight,” Rustad said in a March 13 post on the X platform.
”Bill 7 is so radical that it’s almost hard to believe — for example, it includes provisions that allow the NDP to introduce road pricing and collect your personal information,” he said.
Rustad also said his party would not support the legislation.
“The Conservative Party of BC will never support Bill 7 legislation that includes powers for road pricing, secretive collection of personal information, and almost unlimited ‘emergency’ powers,” he said in a consecutive post on X.
China Tariffs
Eby said that the legislation would also allow cabinet the same authority to respond to tariff threats from China.
China recently announced 100 percent retaliatory tariffs on Canadian canola oil, canola meal, and other agricultural products. It also imposed 25 percent levies on Canadian seafood and pork products.
The tariffs were in response to Canada’s 100 percent levies on EVs from China as well as a 25 percent tariff on Chinese aluminum and steel products, announced in October 2024. At the time, Canada said its industries were facing “unfair” competition from Chinese producers. It said China had a state-directed policy of overcapacity and oversupply.
“I’m urging the federal government to treat the tariffs from China the same way as from the United States,” Eby said. “They’re having impacts. They will have impacts on British Columbians, on their livelihoods.”
