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CANADIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS ATTEND MEETING OF MIDWESTERN STATE LEGISLATORS From July 17-20, 2011, the Honourable Senator Art Eggleton, P.C. and Mr. Jeff Watson, M.P., Vice-Chair, represented the Canadian Section of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group at the 66th annual meeting of the Midwestern Legislative Conference (MLC) in Indianapolis, Indiana. “The MLC meeting was a great opportunity to discuss a number of issues of importance to Canada-U.S. relations,” said Senator Eggleton. “I was particularly pleased to see so much interest in the new bridge to be built over the Detroit River. Everybody on both sides of the border is anxious to have the project done in order to facilitate the movement of people and goods across the shared border. Canada is the most important trading partner for states in the U.S. Midwest, which makes it in everybody’s interest to enhance our bilateral trade relationship by thinning, as opposed to thickening, the border.” Mr. Watson concluded: “The relationship between Canada and the 11 MLC states is mutually beneficial, both economically and culturally. According to recent figures, more than 1.6 million jobs in the 11 MLC states rely on Canada-U.S. trade. Annual merchandise trade between Canada and these states was recently valued at about US$196 billion: about US$81 billion was exported from these states to Canada, while they imported more than US$116 billion from Canada. Recent data suggest that, in a twelve-month period, Canadians made more than 4.4 million visits to the MLC states and spent more than US$1.3 billion, while residents of these states made more than 2.9 million visits to Canada and spent more than US$1.4 billion.” The MLC is a regional association of state legislators from 11 U.S. states, and includes provincial parliamentarians from four affiliated Canadian provinces (see lists below). The purpose of the MLC is to foster regional intergovernmental cooperation in the Midwest through the joint consideration of common problems, the interchange of information and ideas, the sharing of knowledge and experience and, as appropriate, the pursuit of collaborative efforts to improve state government. Information on the MLC is available at www.csgmidwest.org. 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 our United States 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: STATES IN THE MIDWESTERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Nebraska North Dakota Ohio South Dakota Wisconsin AFFILIATED CANADIAN PROVINCES IN THE MIDWESTERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE Alberta Manitoba Ontario Saskatchewan
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