ORONO, Maine — When it comes to friends, few are more valuable to Maine than its neighbor to the north.
A two-day Cross-Border Economic Integration in the Northeast Conference, which started Monday at the University of Maine, is focused on the future of trade and commerce between Maine and the Canadian provinces. About 100 business and government representatives from both sides of the border are meeting to discuss where to take their relationship next.
One of the year’s hottest topics is the potential for an east-west highway, which would link New Brunswick to Quebec by way of a 220-mile toll highway through Maine. Cianbro Chairman and CEO Peter Vigue is scheduled to speak at Tuesday’s session about the benefits of the proposed privately funded highway.
John Butera, senior economic adviser for Gov. Paul LePage, said the administration wholeheartedly backs the highway plan. Butera said the governor has said he believes a highway would bring dollars into Maine while helping the Atlantic Provinces and New England grow economically as a whole.
“We truly believe that there’s tremendous opportunity and promise between Canada and Maine,” Butera said Monday morning while delivering the opening keynote address.
The relationship between Canada and Maine runs deeper than geography, Butera argued, saying that the region “has been a site of human and cultural interactions for thousands of years.”
Canada is the leading trading partner of both the United States and Maine.
Among the statistics boasted at the conference:
• Fifty-five percent of Maine’s foreign-owned companies are Canadian.
• There are more than 37,000 jobs in the Pine Tree State that are dependent on trade with Canada.
• Canada is the United States’ largest foreign supplier of oil, nuclear fuel, natural gas and hydroelectricity.
• More than $1.4 billion worth of goods crosses the U.S.-Canada border each day, which is more traffic than any other border on the planet.
• Each day, an average of 300,000 people cross the border.
• Maine sells more goods to Canada than any other nation — sending about one-third of all its exports to the Canadian provinces in 2011.
“It’s very clear that trade opportunities currently exist between Maine and Canada,” Butera said, “and we believe there are a lot of future opportunities.”
Butera said LePage has visited the premiers of both New Brunswick and Quebec in an effort to forge lasting communication between Maine and the provinces.
“Proactive efforts are under way to build relationships and advance economic integration,” he said.
Information on the conference is available at http://www.umaine.edu/canam/crossborderconference.
Wonder how high the toll would have to be to make this highway work?
eastwest high speed railway would be alot better. I dont see why they couldnt have freight and passenger trains go from montreal in to bangor then into moncton. If amtrak came up to bangor then it would be a rail hub.
Sorry, freight trains cant go 75 MPH but Canadian Trucks can. Not to mention the time to load and unload trailers on to rail cars.
Not to mention the screaming fits the oil companies, truck manufacturers distributors and Cianbros of the world would have if all those years of destroying railroad systems were all for naught.
You are way to late to try and save Maine Railroads. Most have been destroyed many years ago. Just a few miles of usable track left and old broke down Engines and rail cars barely work without a derailment going over 10 MPH.
I like your thinking Mr……
This highway is just a give-away to Cianbro at the expense of Mainers. Such a road will do nothing for the vast majority of Maine citizens. I feel bad for all the people who will lose property by eminent domain.
I will do all I can to stop this from happening.
Really just should be a meeting with Cianbro and Canadian Irving Trucking Corp. No one else need show.
What a bunch of BULL!!!!!!
I used to have a little respect for Cianbro. Now none.
If Maine is as controlled by Canadian interests as it seems, and if it is about to strengthen the economic integration between Maine and the Maritimes even more, why not go the whole way? I can’t imagine anyone else in the the US federal set-up would lose much sleep if Maine became the newest Maritime province. It would rid them of one of those noxious mainly liberal New England (present electoral mistake excepted)states. Also, Maine is a state on the federal dole, costing the rest of the country more to keep Maine afloat than is gained from it. Some Canadians might wince at this prospect, but both in terms of historical and economic geography, it makes sense. Wouldn’t it makes sense to fisheries and general marine wildlife management to turn the Bay of Fundy into a Canadian lake? Besides, rank and file Mainers probably wouldn’t notice the difference. Their taxes would rise, but so too would the benefits derived from them. Add to the appeal the very real connections between thousands upon thousands of Mainers and their Maritimer relatives and it’s a no-brainer.
We could supply ourselves with 100% of the Hydro power, but you always have the few that are against…..
When was the last time Canada built us a highway?