PLATTSBURGH — For the North Country, the pathway to renewed prosperity runs north, North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas said.

“More importantly than ever, we need to be collaborating on a north-south axis to reinvigorate that relationship with Canada as part of getting manufacturing and eventually tourism and visitation, all elements of the North Country economy, going again with some real opportunity to not only get it back to where it was a few months ago, but to take it even farther,” he said.

Douglas and other officials participated in a working group call on the northern border hosted by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, Friday.

Stefanik has hosted several other such calls with other sectors, including education, hospitals and local elected officials, in order to obtain feedback as the region and country look to reopen.

The call followed another that took place Thursday between the North Country Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Quebec and elected officials.

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Interconnected

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Douglas spoke about how, as the United States looks to “re-shore” manufacturing of medical, pharmaceutical and other vital supplies from other places, particularly China, there are opportunities that need to be grasped on a bi-national basis.

“The U.S. and Canada are so intertwined, so interconnected. We make things together, it’s together that we compete effectively against China, against the rest of the world.”

So as Congress and the state legislature look to increase U.S.-based manufacturing and production, it is important to do so without side-swiping Canada, he said.

“One of the clear fears from past experience is that anytime the U.S. senses unfair trading practices or has economic problems with some other place in the world, it tends to then enact things that don’t differentiate but end up sweeping Canada into the mix,” Douglas continued.

From there, advocacy begins to remake the case to exempt Canada from those policies.

Instead, Canada should be included in a North American partnership that also brings good things to the North Country and Quebec, Douglas said.

Chamber Vice President of Economic Development Sue Matton said the chamber was looking forward to helping companies on both sides of the border navigate changes and access resources and training for their workers.

She also mentioned how the organization is helping its member companies prepare for when the United States Mexico Canada Agreement’s provisions go into effect in July.

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Border restrictions

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Douglas said it was fortunate that essential manufacturing employees and health care workers were exempt from the border restrictions implemented March 21 in response to COVID-19.

“It’s a symbol of just how interconnected we are and, hopefully, one of the things we come out of this having is a greater appreciation for that cross-border connection.”

St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency CEO Patrick Kelly said the importance of maintaining commercial traffic flow across the border could not be overstated.

“One of the things we did not want to deal with was working with companies into the next five or 10 years who are saying, ‘Well what if they close the border again?’ “So the fact that the supply chains have been able to continue is important.”

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Concerns from Canada

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It was announced earlier this week that the border’s effective closure to non-essential traffic had been extended to June 21.

Canadian/American Border Trade Alliance President and CEO Jim Phillips said he thought fear had trumped the border at this point.

He added that the Canadian government is extremely concerned about the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States.

“If the border tends to be closed beyond June 21, it will be the Canadians that are initiating that action, and it would not surprise me if it was another month after that to July.”

Phillips said it is important that the North Country proves to Canada that it has the coronavirus situation under control, and that he believes the Quebec-New York border as a region would be the first in the country to open.

Bridge authority officials from the western part of the region spoke to how revenue losses resulting from the restrictions will not be sustainable in the future.

Thousand Islands Bridge Authority Executive Director Timothy Sturick said about $1.5 billion in trade typically crosses the international bridge every month.

But commercial traffic is down by 25%, which means hundreds of millions of dollars is not currently crossing.

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Union perspective

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National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 138 President Jamey Goheens, who represents Customs and Border Protection officers at the ports of entry from Champlain to Alexandria Bay, said employees who work on the commercial side remain busy.

Conversely, passenger traffic is down 98%, so employees assigned there currently have time to assist Border Protection in other ways.

He said personal protective equipment continues to flow, though it can take a while to get through the order process, and that CBP workers are preparing for the eventual lifting of restrictions.

But, Goheens noted, funding is a major problem.

“We have just about exhausted funding for the fiscal year. User fee funds do account for a lot of that funding, and that surplus is all but just about gone now.”

The union would like to see some emergency funding approved; Goheens believed a request had been put in.

“Once we do finally open, I can guarantee you we’re going to have some pretty good wait times,” he continued, since people will want to get back to their normal routines.

“But we need to avoid that funding issue in order to have that staffing available to do that.”

Additionally, overtime funding that has been pulled will need to be reinstated if there are surges in traffic, Goheens said.

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Harmonize

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Delegate General of Quebec in New York Catherine Loubier said it was extremely important to harmonize what is done on both sides of the border.

She noted that Quebec exports $92 billion worldwide, 70% of which goes to the U.S. with $8 billion going to New York state.

“We were talking earlier about supply chains and how integrated we are and I completely agree that anything that will interfere in those supply chains on the long-term will have very, very negative consequences.

“It is important to reopen the border quickly at some point to allow for Quebec to continue to thrive with the region.”