The U.S. has paused negotiations with Canada on a keystone management plan that governs flood control, water supply and hydropower in the shared Columbia River Basin.

B.C.'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.

Canada and the U.S. have been engaged in formal talks for the last seven years to update the decades-old water sharing agreement, originally created to mitigate downstream flood concerns in the Pacific Northwest and to generate hydroelectric power along the river system.