A delegation from the Plattsburgh North Country Chamber of Commerce met with the mayor of Montreal this week to discuss areas of common interest and potential cross-border collaborations between Canada’s second-largest city and the North Country.
The Plattsburgh North Country Chamber of Commerce has been working for years to deepen economic connections between Quebec and New York. This week a group of officials from the North Country were in Montreal to discuss tourism, recreation, business, international relations and how to foster cross-border opportunities with the city of Montreal.
Chamber president and CEO Garry Douglas explains the conversation with Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre was intended to build municipal-level relationships with the city about an hour north of Plattsburgh. “We’ve had a very strong business relationship, a very strong government to government relationship at a higher level. We’ve just haven’t gotten around to building a municipal level connectivity and that’s what’s happening here.”
Douglas says Montreal’s mayor instantly engaged with the contingent from New York. “He already has a strong understanding of the importance of the sense of regionality; of looking at metropolitan Montreal as including the Plattsburgh-North Country area. On this side of the border, the role that we play building prosperity for the Quebec business community by helping them access the U.S. market. Which in turn helps us as well. Very gracious. We committed to start a series of follow-up conversations over the coming weeks and months.”
The discussion with Mayor Coderre included the potential for sports related collaborations. Montreal and Lake Placid are sister Olympic sites and the closest Olympic neighbors on the planet. Lake Placid Mayor Craig Randall. “For us it was an initial meeting to meet Mayor Coderre, who I think has been in office now a little over a year in Montreal. He’s new. The objectives were from Lake Placid’s standpoint to try to bring the scope of the conversations from just business development to looking at sports and recreational opportunities that might exist that would be of interest to the region, including Plattsburgh and everything in between. Although it was only intended to be introductory there was a good reception to continuing the conversations and looking forward to maybe doing some activities that would be sport-recreational in nature between the two cities.”
Congressman Bill Owens says sports and recreational activities were part of their agenda because they are a good first step to stronger cross-border cooperation in other sectors. “Very engaging man. Very interested in regional cooperation. Sees opportunities for growth in the region. One of the things we talked about was structuring a bike ride from Montreal to Plattsburgh and then on to Lake Placid. We were exploring a number of those kinds of ideas. This is the kind of thing that gets us into the type of regional activity which I think is so critical to our economic development and helping us create jobs.”
Plattsburgh Mayor James Calnon says there was clear agreement on the need for regionalization. “When he speaks he’s talking about regionalizing over several states and across eastern Canada as well, but recognizing that Plattsburgh and Montreal do have a pretty unique relationship that he wants to foster.”
Mayor Coderre accepted an invitation to visit Plattsburgh and Lake Placid, but no date has been set.
