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Canadian IPG Parliamentarians Meet with U.S. Legislators From 9-13 August 2014, the Honourable Wayne Easter, P.C., M.P., Vice-Chair, led a delegation from the Canadian Section of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group to the annual meetings of the Council of State Governments (CSG) and the CSG’s western region (CSG-WEST). The annual meetings, which were held concurrently in Anchorage, Alaska and had “New Frontiers, Big Ideas” as the theme, were also attended by Senator Jean-Guy Dagenais, Senator Terry Mercer, Ms. Jean Crowder, M.P. and Mr. Andrew Saxton, M.P. “I know that I’m speaking on behalf of all of my colleagues when I say how very pleased we were to be able to attend the annual meetings,” said Mr. Easter. “As is always the case, a great many topics of shared interest were discussed, including workforce development, the Arctic, business incentives, economic development, trade, energy, agriculture, health care and public safety.” Mr. Easter concluded: “As well, in the context of the meeting of the CSG WEST Canada Relations Committee, I was fortunate to be able to share some insights about the role of Canada’s federal government in relation to emergency preparedness and about Canada’s priorities as the current chair of the Arctic Council. I think that there are lessons that Canada and the United States can learn from each other about preventing and responding to emergencies, and I believe that certain elements of the work undertaken by Canada as the Arctic Council chair will be continued when the United States becomes chair in 2015.” Founded in 1933, the CSG serves the three branches of state government. It is a forum for exchanging insights and ideas to help influence public policy. Among its regional groups is CSG-WEST, which was founded 61 years ago and includes the United States’ 13 western states (see the Appendix). British Columbia and Alberta are associate members of CSG-WEST. Additional information on CSG and CSG-WEST can be found at www.csg.org and www.csgwest.org respectively. It should be noted that the views expressed in this news release are specific to the Canadian Section of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group and, as such, may not reflect the views of U.S. counterparts. The Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group aims to find points of convergence in respective national policies, to initiate dialogue on points of divergence, to encourage the exchange of information and to promote better understanding among legislators on shared issues of concern. Additional information on the Group can be found at www.parl.gc.ca/iia/us. -30- For further information: Hon. Janis
Johnson, Senator, Co-Chair Mr. Gord Brown,
M.P., Co-Chair Ms. Angela
Crandall, Association Secretary
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