NEWS RELEASE

Canadian Parliamentarians Attend Meeting of Midwestern State Legislators

From 14-17 July 2013, the Honourable Wilfred Moore, Q.C., Senator, Vice-Chair led a delegation from the Canadian Section of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG) to the 68th annual meeting of the Council of State Government’s Midwestern Legislative Conference (MLC) in St. Paul, Minnesota. The other members of the delegation were the Honourable Jean-Guy Dagenais, Senator and Mr. Merv Tweed, M.P.

“The MLC meetings are a very valuable forum,” said Senator Moore. “At these meetings, legislators from the MLC states and provinces are able to establish and strengthen their relationships, and to build consensus on issues of importance to Canadians and Americans. Canada and the United States are the world's largest trading partners, and Canada and the Midwest have a particularly important trade relationship: the Ambassador Bridge, which is the busiest commercial crossing between the two countries, is in the region. Recent figures suggest that annual exports from the Midwest to the four MLC-affiliated Canadian provinces are valued at more than CAN$80 billion annually, while imports total more than CAN$120 billion.”

Senator Moore concluded: “Overall, the meeting was very productive. MLC members drafted resolutions to be sent to the legislators’ home states and provinces, as well as to the U.S. Congress, on important bilateral topics: a new border crossing between Windsor and Detroit, water quality in the Great Lakes and country-of-origin labelling, or COOL.” In particular, regarding COOL, the Midwest-Canada Relations Committee held an in-depth discussion that focused, among other things, on the states’ and provinces’ shared economic interests and the highly integrated North American livestock industry. I was pleased that this committee worked with the MLC’s Agriculture Committee on a resolution that – if implemented – will benefit the livestock industry throughout the region.”

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 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.

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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