Canadian Parliamentarians Attend
Meeting of
U.S. Midwestern State Legislators
From 12-16 July 2014, a delegation from the
Canadian Section of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG)
attended the 69th annual meeting of the Council of State Governments’
Midwestern Legislative Conference (MLC) in Omaha, Nebraska. The members of the
delegation were the Honourable Jane Cordy, Senator, the Honourable Scott
Tannas, Senator, Mr. Leon Benoit, M.P. and Mr. John Rafferty, M.P.
MLC members drafted nine resolutions that will be submitted to appropriate individuals in the members’
home states and provinces, as well as to the U.S. Congress. The MLC’s
Midwest-Canada Relations Committee discussed a number of bilateral issues, such
as cross-border mutual aid in times of emergency, ways to address selected U.S.
border measures, and pilot projects designed to move the inspection of goods
away from the shared border.
As a result of its discussions, the
Midwest-Canada Relations Committee proposed two resolutions. The first
resolution involves commemoration of the commitment of the United States and
Canada to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and continued
encouragement of respect for the spirit of NAFTA by avoiding policies that are
inconsistent with the integrated nature of supply chains in, and the economies
of, the two countries.
The second resolution involves a request to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
to reconsider its proposed fee increase for agricultural quarantine
inspections, and to continue to move to pre-clearance inspections and other
measures that are based on a reasonable risk assessment in relation to products
entering the United States from Canada.
The MLC is a regional association of state
legislators from 15 jurisdictions from 11 U.S. states and four affiliated
Canadian provinces (see Appendix). The purpose of the MLC is to foster regional
intergovernmental cooperation in the U.S. 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 about 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 IPG 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.
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For further
information:
Hon. Janis
Johnson, Senator, Co-Chair
Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group - 613-943-1430
Mr. Gord Brown,
M.P., Co-Chair
Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group - 613-992-8756
Ms. Angela
Crandall, Association Secretary
Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group - 613-944-4238
