B.C. Trucking Association says tolling American vehicles not worth the potential retaliation

The B.C. Trucking Association says making American truckers pay fees to transit through the province to Alaska could be a costly move.

The B.C. Trucking Association is voicing concerns over new legislation that could allow the provincial government toll commercial vehicles from the United States travelling to Alaska.

It comes a day after the NDP government introduced its Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act. Both the B.C. Greens and Conservatives have voiced their concerns as well.

The legislation would allow the government to implement various measures to respond to potential financial attacks by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly mused about annexing Canada, including doing so by economic force.

The bill includes a section that would allow tolls and fees to be applied to road traffic as well as ferries travelling along the coast.

“It takes us outside the tariff realm where you’re taxing goods, and you start to move into a place of starting to look at how these goods move,” B.C. Trucking Association president Dave Earle told CTV News.

“That’s something that no jurisdiction anywhere in the world should actually begin to touch, and work with, is the free movement of goods.”

Earle points out that the number of commercial trucks that cross into Alaska every year is very small.

Stats from the province show the number is right around 10,000.

Earle says it’s not worth risking a potential retaliation from the U.S., which could – for example – place similar tolls on trucks travelling through the U.S. to Canada from Mexico.

“Canada gets 30 to 40 per cent of its produce from Mexico,” he said. “You could divert to marine transport but that’s not as efficient.”

Premier David Eby was asked about the possible retaliations on Friday.

“I understand that Alaskans might feel anxious about the idea of an additional charge on trucks going from Washington state to Alaska,” he said.

“But we need Alaskans to send the message to Donald Trump about how intertwined we are about the connections between our economies, that we built the Alaska Highway together … I hope very much that the elected Republicans in Alaska are sending that message to the president, because you can see very quickly how destructive a trade war is.”