Phillips, James D.

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Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Canada-United States Law JournalVolume 30 | Issue Article 52January 2004Western Regionalism: Views on CascadiaJames D. PhillipsFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cusljPart of the Transnational Law CommonsThis Speech is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons.It has been accepted for inclusion in Canada-United States Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School ofLaw Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationJames D. Phillips, Western Regionalism: Views on Cascadia, 30 Can.-U.S. L.J. 333 (2004)Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/52WESTERN REGIONALISM: VIEWS ON CASCADIAJames D. PhillipstU.S. SpeakerPaul is a very, very astute gentleman and has a very good sense of humor,I think.He looked at me and he said, "What is a New Yorker going to talk aboutCascadia," when we talked yesterday. I just have to tell you with all levityaside, I am very involved in Cascadia.I apologize to you. I had arranged for both the speakers to be here to-night. One of them is on my Board and the other one is a key member, and,unfortunately, one thing after another came up, and neither one were able toarrive. Therefore, I want to give you a quick overview of the reality of whatis going on in that region. It is probably one of the very most successful re-gions in the entire binational border area, and with very successful initiatives.In addition, let me highlight the players. The players are the DiscoveryInstitute1 in Seattle, the Cascadia Institute in Vancouver, the Director andPresident are both on my Board, and then we have the Whatcom Council oft James D. Phillips is the President and CEO of Can/Am Border Trade Alliance. TheCanadian/American Border Trade Alliance, formed in 1992, is a transcontinental, bi-national,broad-based organization with participation from all 27 states on or near the U.S./CanadaBorder and the Canadian Provinces. The combined network involves over 60,000 companiesand organizations in their individual memberships. Can/Am participants include membersfrom border trade, border crossing and transportation segments including producers, shippers,brokers, mode transportation providers, bridge and tunnel operators, chambers of commerce,business and trade corridor associations and economic development and government agencies.The Can/Am's major focus areas are trade, transportation, border management and visitation.Mr. Phillips is past President of General Abrasive, where he served as Chief Executive Offi-cer, Executive Vice President, Vice President of Finance, and Vice President in charge ofOperations of the Canadian Subsidiary, General Abrasive (Canada) Limited. Prior to hisemployment at General Abrasive, he was Chief Financial Officer of the Pigments Division ofthe American Cyanamid Company. Additionally, Mr. Phillips was appointed by the SenateMajority and the Governor to the New York State Superfund Management Board. He waselected to the Marquis Who's Who in American Business in the East; Who's Who in Financeand Industry; and Who's Who in America. Mr. Phillips is the recipient of the prestigiousDresser Gold Medal for the most innovative and creative contribution to technology for hispatented Furnace Plant Design. He was presented with the Business Council of New YorkState award by the Governor.1 See http://www.discovery.org/ (last visited Sept. 26, 2004).1Phillips: Western Regionalism: Views on CascadiaPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2004CANADA-UNITED STATES LAW JOURNALGovernments 2 who are out of Bellingham, Washington who are essentiallythe secretariat for the International Mobility and Trade Corridor Project.That is truly the Cascadia network or Gateway. They have organized, allthe way down to Mexico on the 1-5 corridor.Then there is sort of an overarching group that Paul mentioned, which iscalled Pacific Northwest Economic Region, also allied with Can/Am BTA,that is made up of three provinces of Yukon, Alberta and British Columbiaand the five states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. 3 Iwill talk a little about that as we go through the evening. Can/Am providesbinational, transcontinental, overarching, behind the scenes support for whatthey do. As a result, I spent about five weeks this year in Cascadia. There-fore, I do get my foot over there occasionally. It is a wonderful area.I want to talk about a success story that, perhaps, they hide under a bushela little bit more. I am pleased that I can speak about it, because they mightbe a little bit more modest than I can be on their behalf.The Cascadia Institute, which is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. is anon-profit, policy public education organization that formed back in the1980s to work on the regional and binational cooperation between B.C. andthe Pacific northwestern states, particularly at that point, Oregon and Wash-ington in the United States. That was in the 1980s before it was a popularnotion that we were going toward free trade. They work on the interconnect-edness of the peoples and the territories in that area as a unified focus.They recognize the interdependence of the economies, and the synergiesand benefit of cross pollination and interaction between all the various mat-ters. They tend to work on a binational level in almost all of their initiatives.It was the Cascadia Institute that was the founding organizers and secretariatof the B.C./Washington Task Force, which was one of the early groups thatwas mandated by the Governor of Washington State and the Premier of Brit-ish Columbia to work on the intergovernmental and binational connection;addressing border infrastructure, sustainable growth management and tour-ism development in the area.On the southern leg of Cascadia, the focus is the Discovery Institute outof Seattle, Washington; their mission is to make a positive vision in the fu-ture practical.6 Simply stated, Institute discovers and promotes ideas in thecommon sense tradition of represented government, free market and indi-2 See http://www.wcog.org/DesktopDefault.aspx (last visited Sept. 26, 2004).3 See http://www.pnwer.org/ (last visited Oct. 27, 2004).4 B.C.-Washington State Corridor Work Gets Funding, CANADIAN GOVERNMENTPROGRAMS & SERVICES NEWSLETrER, May 2001.5 David Crane, Ex-Torontonians Discover Opportunity on West Coast, TORONTO STAR,March 26, 1994, at B2.6 Id.[Vol. 30:3332Canada-United States Law Journal, Vol. 30 [2004], Iss. , Art. 52https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/52Phillips-Western Regionalism: Views on Cascadiaviduality. One of the most exciting developments occurred about fourmonths ago. Bruce Agnew, who was a Director of Cascadia Project, wasable to get from the Bill Gates Foundation one million dollars a year for the7next ten years, and that was awarded to Cascadia Discovery. Thus, there arevery serious initiatives coming and I have been assured they will put it tovery good use.Within the effort of the Discovery Institute and the Cascadia Institute is aproject called the Cascadia Project.8 This project is intended to examine abalanced, seamiess and expanded transportation system between Washing-ton, Oregon, and British Columbia with the belief that the system is neededto keep the region globally competitive. 9 They are focused on the 1-5 corri-dor, which is the highway corridor that runs from Vancouver to San Diegoand the northwest rail line that runs parallel to it.'0 They have now organizedthe western corridor organization, where they had the various organizationsin all the states down to California that are working together on this excellentinitiative.They organize locally. They think long-term; they have a 50-year visionand a 20-year planning horizon in what they do." They plan regionally.They finance internationally and they finance innovatively, and sometimesparadigm shifting methods are used to finance the various initiatives.Within that whole project area, there is a project called the IMTC, whichis called the International Mobility and Trade Corridor Project. 12 This isprobably the single most organized, long-standing, and effective binationalproject that I know of in all my experience across the entire border. TheIMTC is a coalition of Canadians and Americans formed to jointly identifyand pursue improvements to cross border mobility in the Cascade gateway. 13When Discovery and Cascadia, as two organizations, began to define andto plan this initiative, they got the Whatcom Council of Government, whichis headed up by Jim Miller and Gordon Rogers as the secretariat of IMTC.The Whatcom Council of Governments is a major member of Can/Am aswell. They represent the local governments. They are the designated organi-zations through which all highway funds from USDOT flow and then theydisburse through their operations to the priority projects that have been ap-proved by the various governments. 14 They are a real central artery of both7 See http://www.gatesfoundation.org/PacificNorthwest/Grants/Grant-29490.htm (lastvisited Sept. 25, 2004).8 See http://www.discovery.org/cascadia/ (last visited Sept. 25, 2004).9 See http://www.discovery.org/cascadia/about.html (last visited Sept. 26, 2004).0 Id." Id.12 See http://www.wcog.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=26 (last visited Sept. 25, 2004).13 id.14 See http://www.wcog.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=23 (last visited Sept. 26, 2004).2004]3Phillips: West rn Regionalism: Views on CascadiaPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2004CANADA-UNITED STATES LAW JOURNALfunding and knowledge and intelligence in the so-called Bellingham regionof the Cascadia area.I want to talk about the IMTC. I hold it up as a success story. It is long-standing. It involves a coordination of about 70 organizations.1 5 It has beenin operation for eight or nine years, involving at the Federal level fromTransport Canada, the Washington State Department of Transportation, Brit-ish Columbia Ministry of transportation, the BNSF railroad, Amtrak, Port ofBellingham, U.S. Customs, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services,Canada Border Service Agencies, Washington Trucking Association, broker-age firms, duty free shops, and motor coach companies. Also involved aremunicipalities, including the major cities and areas in the regional govern-ment, four border-crossing cities in Washington state: Bellingham, Blaine,Lind and Sumas. NGOs involved span from the regional chambers, Vancou-ver Board of Trade, the Cascadia Project, the Discovery of Cascadia Groups,and the Pacific Corridor Enterprise Council, which was put together by PeterFraser sometime in the late 1980s. Other governmental agencies includingthe Consulates of the U.S. and Canada, the GSA, who is the landlord of theU.S. inspection facilities at the border, state provincial and federal legislatorsall participate.Their objectives are infrastructure, planning and data collection.' 6 It isimperative to establish a knowledge base in order to anticipate changingtrends. They deal in operation policy and staffing. They are the interfacepromoting Smart Border Declaration for the region and increasing U.S. bor-der inspection staffing, which until 9/11 went neglected. Before 9/11, not asingle inspector had been added to the U.S.-Canada border in fifteen years.Remarkably, we could hardly get mens' and ladies' rooms, or get funds torepair infrastructure, federal inspection stations on U.S. and Canada. That isno joke. Therefore, 9/11 exacted changes in numerous ways.If there has been any good to come out of such a horrible event, there wasa renewed political will to benefit the region. Further, everybody knew whatthey had to do because of people from groups like Cascadia, Discovery andthe Whatcom Council. They knew what they had to do and they were able todo it once the political will came.As far as funding, between 1990 and 2002, IMTC acquired 12.2 milliondollars for these initiatives. It is not a small operation by any means. Mostimportantly, about 2.6 of that came from the B.C. province provincial gov-ernment. Another 5.6 million came to the U.S. Federal Highway Authority,through the USDOT. Washington State kicked in 1.1 million and TransportCanada had contributed 2.8 million through grants and other political opera-15 See http://www.wcog.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=22 (last visited Nov. 1, 2004).16 id.[Vol. 30:3334Canada-United States Law Journal, Vol. 30 [2004], Iss. , Art. 52https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/52Phillips-Western Regionalism: Views on Cascadiations where they were able to get their projects. They do a good job of plan-ning, as I said. They do a good job of articulating what has needed, how todo it, what I need to do it. They back it up with reality. They go to the gov-erning bodies for funding, they have a very good record of accomplishment,and they spend their money wisely. When they are finished, they post audits,always come out showing they have done what they said they were going todo.As far as results, I think they like to hide under the bushel. You will notsee them too much in the paper or bragging, they just get the job done quietlyand effectively. They are a great bunch of people. I wish of a couple ofthem would have been here tonight for you to meet.The next step up is the Pacific Northwest economic region, and, as Paulso articulately said, these are five states and three Provinces. As Paul said, itwould be about the tenth largest economy in the world if this area were acountry. 17 Their gross regional product is about 350 billion 18 and they have apopulation of about 18 million in this group.Can/Am is honored because we have been partners for a long time, andevery year now, we share the annual PNWER annual meeting last year wasin Calgary. Can/Am presents the border segment and the transportationsegment. We bring speakers. I had Minister Caplan out last year to themeeting. In addition, PNWER does the environmental work and other as-pects of this; and it is a very effective organization. Again, the key here isthe integrated layering and the cooperation that is present at every step fromthe local to the highest level.We talk about Windsor; we talk about Buffalo, who has the power, whosegoing to get the money. Out here, they work so collaboratively and effec-tively. They get the right priorities. They all get in the boat and they arerowing together. It is a real model for most of us to observe.PNWER'S FOCUSPNWER is fortunate, for instance to have great individuals, such as RalphKlein. He is personally very active in this arena with Can/Am, PNWER andwith the Cascadia region. The Premiers come to the meetings and speak.The Governors come to the meetings.I would like to analyze the focus of the big picture PNWER region. Youhave the border issues, which nobody is missing anywhere across the border,agricultural issues. They have a regional energy strategy for supply in this17 William Dibenedetto, Welcome to Cascadia, JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, OCt. 17, 1996, at6A.18 See 1996 Estimate, available at: http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/138 (last vis-ited Sept. 24, 2004).2004]5Phillips: Western Regionalism: Views on CascadiaPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2004CANADA-UNITED STATES LAW JOURNALPNWER region. They have an emerging distributing generation technolo-gies focus. There are working groups on each of these elements. These arethe priorities, environment, green, sustainable, very, very important at alllevels there to protect the air, water equality and get the job done.Forestry, they address the flow of pacific forest product industries, that isstraddling the border, some in the United States and some in B.C., of course,heavily. Health care, methods for states to reduce health care costs, hightech., looking at world connectivity, one of the biggest things they have iden-tified in the Lower Peninsula and in the area of Cascadia is connectivity tothe very widespread towns and villages in the area.Urbanization, big in Seattle, big in Vancouver, but, essentially, a largepart of the population is spread out -among the beautiful lakes and areas inthis area, so connectivity is very important.They have been very fortunate and successful in getting infrastructure fi-nancing and international bonding mechanisms. Maritime security, workingwith Senator Patty Murray and Operation Safe Commerce and Seattle is oneof the pilot ports that are involved. 19Sustainable development is very critical. Tourism is also an issue as theytout the two-nation vacation. They live and breathe two nation, come toVancouver, come on down, see Portland, Seattle, nice things to see in Wash-ington, Oregon. Alternatively, if you are coming to Seattle, you must go upand see our lakes, up to Whistler and the whole business.Another issue is trade and economic development, working together againfor the region investment. Transportation for work force development is avery critical issue, as is homeland security. Finally, the Olympics for Whis-tler are coming down the pike.2 ° We are working hard on this.There is a thing called NEXUS plus, which we are working hard on aninitiative to be implemented by the time the Olympics come. UnderNEXUS, we will have a NEXUS card; you are all familiar with NEXUS atthe land. NEXUS air is being piloted in Vancouver. We are talking aboutNEXUS cruise. Six million people ride the ferries in B.C., WashingtonState, Oregon. We are talking about NEXUS ferry passes on one card. Youand I can sign up, go through background check, and get a low risk traveldesignation. This is going to help a great deal when the rush comes for theOlympics. We have to plan for that well ahead.19 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Busi-ness Opportunities, available at:http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?theme=223&content=090005198000cObe (last visited Oct.6, 2004).20 The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid, available at: http://www.winter20l0.com/ (lastvisited Oct. 27, 2004).[Vol. 30:3336Canada-United States Law Journal, Vol. 30 [2004], Iss. , Art. 52https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/522004] Phillips-Western Regionalism: Views on Cascadia 339In closing, I would leave you with the argument that success here is theintegration, the layering, the cooperation, the open communication. There isnone better that I know. There are some almost as good, but this is got to bethe very best. Henry made a good selection in suggesting that Cascadia behighlighted. I leave you with one last point, you might ask what the mostfrustrating problem that they all have is from day one, and it is called trucksize and weights between the provinces and states. As hard as they work andas well as they are connected, they have not made one iota of progress har-monizing weights and size of truck. That is it for Cascadia.Thanks for listening.7Phillips: Western Regionalism: Views on CascadiaPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2004I8Canada-United States Law Journal, Vol. 30 [2004], Iss. , Art. 52https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/52

Western Regionalism: Views on Cascadia

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Western Regionalism: Views on Cascadia

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