Tariff Crisis: Let’s Take Back Control of Our Energy

One lesson we must draw from the failed negotiations with the United States is that we are best served by relying on ourselves. As Canada considers its response to U.S. tariffs, this is a moment for reflection: what does Quebec need to navigate this period of uncertainty? Control over its own energy.

After a summer in which soaring gasoline prices hurt nearly everyone in Quebec, the tariff war now threatens to weigh even more heavily on us. In both cases, we are forced to bear the consequences through no choice of our own. When we allow corporations and other countries to make decisions for us, it should come as no surprise that the cost of living tops voters’ priorities as a general election approaches.

Fortunately, we already know the solution—and we have everything we need to implement it.

Enrich Quebec, not multibillion-dollar corporations

At a time of crisis, we should be buying local and sourcing from Quebec to support our economy. That starts with using our own clean energy.

Every year, Quebecers hand over $10 billion to already immensely wealthy oil companies that hold us hostage. The proof? When the federal government suspended its excise tax last spring, hoping to give taxpayers some relief through a 10-cent-per-litre reduction in gasoline prices, it took less than 10 days for prices to climb back up. Quebec households saved a whopping five dollars per fill-up for less than two weeks. And that “discount” is apparently still in effect! Can you feel it?

The oil industry and international markets control the price of gasoline—not our governments.

Let us be clear-eyed: as long as we choose to power our society with dirty energy that does not belong to us, we will continue making ourselves poorer every day to enrich an industry based elsewhere—particularly in the United States—whose pockets are already overflowing. It is the same vulnerability exposed by the tariff crisis: when we depend on a foreign supplier for an essential need, we allow that supplier to make decisions for us.

And for anyone tempted to argue that the solution is to develop fossil fuels ourselves, bear in mind that even Alberta has not escaped the recent rise in gasoline prices and is also suffering the consequences of the failed negotiations.

Our energy, our price

Being masters in our own house means refusing to remain at the mercy of a volatile energy market controlled by multinational corporations earning record profits. We already know the way out: power our transportation with our own clean electricity instead of imported oil.

Modern Quebec was built by nationalizing electricity through Hydro-Québec, with a clear objective: free ourselves from immensely wealthy corporations and meet an essential need ourselves, according to our own rules. What happened to that ambition? What was unacceptable then should be just as unacceptable today—especially when we are vulnerable to the whims of an unpredictable American president.

Imagine what Quebec will look like once we have electrified our transportation. The $10 billion we spend on gasoline every year will remain here. Just imagine: $10 billion in savings, year after year, from gasoline alone. That would be enough to build the equivalent of at least one Romaine hydroelectric complex—or 250 new elementary schools—every year.

The solution is clear: we must rely on Hydro-Québec and our renewable energy to provide lasting relief to Quebec families and businesses. Moving beyond the energy sources of the past would create thousands of jobs and keep wealth here, while ensuring our long-term competitiveness and economic resilience. As climate disruption intensifies, it is also the clearest path to addressing the crisis while lowering the cost of living.

Our grandparents nationalized electricity so that we would no longer depend on others. Our parents built the infrastructure we needed. Now it is our turn to fully connect to it. And that begins on October 5.

Charles-Édouard Têtu, Climate and Energy Policy Analyst, Équiterre

Andréanne Brazeau, Senior Quebec Policy Analyst, David Suzuki Foundation