ALBANY – Rep. Billy Jones traveled to Ottawa and Montreal this week for the New York-Canada Relations Task Force on a tour organized by the Office of the Consul General of Canada.
Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, is chairman of the task force formed by the New York State Assembly last year. Other task force members joined him on the tour, including Assembly members Stacey Pheffer Amato, Marianne Buttenschon, Simcha Eichenstein and Scott Gray.
In Ottawa, Jones and his colleagues met Assistant Foreign Minister David Morrison of Global Affairs Canada, Canada’s equivalent agency to the U.S. State Department, where they discussed immigration policy and personnel at the border.
The next morning, the task force began its day by meeting with Business Council of Canada executives, including Jack Hughes, senior vice-president of planning and operations; Robert Asselin, senior vice president for policy, and John Dickerman, vice president for U.S. relations, to discuss business relations between the United States and Canada. In the afternoon, congregants met with leaders from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to continue the conversation about the importance of trade relations between the two countries.
The task force also held meetings with Parliament’s Standing Committee on International Trade and the Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group to discuss trade relations between the United States and Canada. During the meeting with the Canada-U.S. Parliamentary Group, MPs discussed strengthening relations between the New York State Legislature and Parliament and continuing these discussions in the future through the creation of an action sheet.
The task force continued its tour in Montreal to learn more about the city and Quebec. Members of the Assembly had introductory meetings with Eric Dequenne, Deputy Minister for Relations with the Americas, Economy and Strategic Intelligence, and Quebec’s General Delegate in New York, Martine Hebert, before beginning a full day of meetings. In the morning, Jones and his colleagues learned more about Montreal’s economic development and the rise of the city’s tech industry during a discussion with Montreal International executives. Following the meeting with Montreal International, the task force met with executives from CDPQ Global, an investment and pension agency, where it learned about the investments it has made in the United States’ infrastructure and its work on sustainability.
In the afternoon, Jones and his colleagues met with members and leaders of the Federation des chambres de commerce du Quebec to continue the dialogue on business relations between the United States and Canada. FCCQ represents more than 130 chambers of commerce across the province and 1,100 corporate members, many of whom do business with the United States. The task force concluded its trip with a meeting with representatives of the United States Observatory at the Chaire Raoul-Dandurand in etudes strategiques et diplomatiques at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, where they continued their research on American politics and the Observatory’s goal of gaining a discussed better understanding of the relationship between the United States and Canada.
“While the North Country understands the importance of our relationship with Canada, the rest of New York often takes this friendship for granted.” Jones said in a statement. “That is why I have asked the Assembly Speaker to establish the New York-Canada Relations Task Force so that my colleagues can better understand this critical relationship. It was a whirlwind tour, but in a positive way – my colleagues and I absorbed so much knowledge about the trade and business relationships between the two nations, immigration and border policy, and Canada’s mining industry that we will bring back to Albany.
“I would like to thank the Consul General of Canada for organizing this trip and for the hospitality of everyone in Ottawa and Montreal.” Jones added. “This is just the beginning of the task force’s work to strengthen the mutually beneficial relationship between New York and Canada, and I look forward to continuing this dialogue in the future.”
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