New Opportunities for Coordinated US-Canada Supply Chain Infrastructure Investments

At the recent Pacific North-West Economic Region (PNWER) Annual Summit , over 600 elected officials, government and private sector leaders from Canada and the United States gathered to discuss the most important issues impacting our cross border regional economy. Agriculture leaders on both sides of the border highlighted the importance of agricultural trade to our region’s health, security, and enhancement of our shared economy.  

Our cross-border integrated agriculture supply chains are vital to the region’s competitiveness internationally. These interdependent cross border connections allow producers to feed North America and the world. However, Ag supply chains are highly dependent on aging critical transportation infrastructure that must be upgraded to sustain and expand economic growth and enhance community resilience.

Canada and the US are engaged in parallel initiatives to improve supply chains and transportation infrastructure in their respective countries, but have few avenues for strategic collaboration. Canada established a Supply Chain Task Force to provide recommendations for improving supply chains, and will fund infrastructure projects through its National Trade Corridor Fund. The US established a Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to address bottlenecks, and will use programs like the Port Infrastructure Development Program to invest in much-needed infrastructure.

We see an important strategic opportunity for Canada and the US to greatly enhance their respective investment efforts by collaborating as bi-national partners, promoting participation and input from each other. Collaboration and dialogue on strategic supply chain infrastructure investments is a win for our region and North American Agriculture exports.

As co-chairs of the PNWER Agriculture Working Group, we urge both the U.S. and Canadian federal, state/provincial, and local governments, as well as our essential private sector partners to work together to plan and implement strategic investments in modernizing critical supply chain infrastructure to enhance the competitiveness of the cross border region. These coordinated strategic investments will result in shared economic growth, and new business opportunities with more and better jobs for all.

PNWER Agriculture Working Group Co-chairs & Staff:

• Ken Francis, Member of the Legislative Assembly, Saskatchewan
• Ken Dey, Director of Government and Public Affairs, J. R. Simplot Company
• Brandon Hardenbrook, Chief Operating Officer, PNWER 

The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region is a statutory public/private nonprofit chartered in 1991 by the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington, the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Northwest Territories. The opinions and thoughts expressed are those of the authors.