Five provinces, four states and one no-show

Driving from Bangor to Saint John, New Brunswick, Tuesday afternoon on Route 9, I fell behind a black SUV bearing the plates of a New Hampshire legislator. As we slogged along this superhighway northern Maine-style – one that lets you enjoy the feeling of anticipation that comes from knowing there’ll be a passing lane somewhere within the next 10 or 15 miles – I wondered if we shared the same destination.

We did. In fact, the first two people I met at the International Business Network Conference were the driver, Rep. John Gallus of Berlin, and his passenger, Robert Danderson, mayor of that northern New Hampshire city.

It’s no great revelation to observe that the best part of a conference that brings together public officials and private-sector leaders from the four Atlantic Canada provinces, eastern Quebec, upstate New York and the three northern New England states to discuss reversing the economic decline throughout this international Northeast region isn’t the speakers and panelists, although they were just fine – articulate, informative and, for the most part, brief. The best part is the face-to-face conversations you get to have with people like Rep. Gallus and, as they call him back home, Mayor Bob.

Anyone who thinks their northern – or eastern, if you prefer – Maine town is alone in facing hard times ought to talk to these two. Berlin has shrunk in just a few decades from the bustling “City That Trees Built” of 27,000 prosperous souls to just over 10,000 poor folks today (Mayor Bob, who’s paid to know these things, puts it at precisely 10,302, provided nobody moved out since he left for Saint John). Rep. Gallus, who sells real estate in real life, says the only real economic activity there these days is from wealthy Bostonians who’ve figured out that Berlin has a lot of nice, vacant homes that make great summer getaways and that can be bought cheap. The only bright spot on the immediate horizon is the possibility that Berlin might edge out a bunch of other contenders and get a new federal prison.

And don’t tell these two that New Hampshire is thriving because of its tax structure. Berlin has the same tax structure as Manchester and Portsmouth. What it doesn’t have is modern highways or convenient and affordable air service.

Don’t tell Rep. Janice Peaslee of Guildhall, Vt., that the vitality of Burlington is proof that location does not prevent Northern New England from thriving. She knows why Burlington thrives: it’s located on a north-south interstate highway smack between the two powerful economic engines of New York City and Montreal. She also knows why her struggling town is the scene of so many horrifying traffic accidents: cars and big rigs sharing the same narrow east-west two-lane roads.

People ask a lot of questions at an event such as this. Like the two upstate New York county officials who, while proud that their state government has come to understand the need for a modern east-west trade route now, not in the next century, are puzzled that a certain state to the east has not. Or the mayor of Edmundston, New Brunswick, who’s proud of the massive investment his province has made in modern transportation but wonders why a certain state to the west has not. (Aroostook County should note that His Worship Jacques Martin said aloud what everyone present already understood – an east-west highway in Maine includes by definition a northern extension of I-95).

Nearly everybody I talked to on Wednesday, the main day of the conference, wondered why that certain state would spend precious transportation dollars on such frills as hike and bike trails and tourist excursion trains while its entire upper tier is in economic collapse. Or why it is investing a fortune widening the southern part of a north-south turnpike that wouldn’t need to be widened if it had an east-west highway. Or whether it actually conducted an east-west economic impact study that did not consider a modern highway’s ability to generate new economic activity, like they do everywhere else.

If these questions had been directed at Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, New Hampshire, Vermont or New York, chances are they could have been answered. The administrations of all of those provinces and states had high-ranking transportation, economic development or planning officials on hand.

Maine’s administration did not. The state certainly was well-represented: Sen. Ed Youngblood showed the flag for the legislative branch; former Bangor mayor and current congressional candidate Tim Woodcock gave a very strong presentation on the need for NAFTA-driven transportation upgrades by both federal governments in the international Northeast; Bangor’s Economic Development Director Jonathan Daniels talked effectively about the link between transportation and the creation of wealth; Perry Newman of the consulting firm Atlantica did a dandy keynoter on the unified region’s potential economic clout. Calais’ acting City Manager Jim Porter was there, so was Brewer Fire Chief and leading east-west advocate Rick Bronson. There may have been a few other Mainers I missed.

But from the King administration and all the departments it oversees, zip. Not a commissioner or a department head or a part-time third deputy assistant. Not even a “best wishes” card. The King administration, it turns out, was holding its own miniature version of the same conference the same day. The Saint John conference has been held four years running, the date was set back way back in February and Maine comes along and picks the same date for Maine Trade Day. Several speakers and panelists – a few openly grumbling about the duplication of effort – left the Saint John trade conference early so they could repeat themselves at Maine’s trade conference lite. No one from Maine’s central office thought to return the favor.

The no-show caused quite a buzz in Saint John; there was considerable whispered speculation about whether this was some kind of snub. This is where I rose vigorously to the old home state’s defense. It’s not a snub, I explained patiently and consolingly to several concerned conferees. It’s just too difficult and dangerous a drive.

Bruce Kyle is the assistant editorial page editor for the Bangor Daily News.