Governor, N.B. premier sign accords

MADAWASKA – Gov. John Baldacci and New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord on Saturday signed two memorandums of understanding promoting cooperation and sharing between the state and the province at a luncheon during the second Maine-New Brunswick Border Summit.

The agreements designated specific areas where the two governments will work together, including international border corridor development, computers in the classroom, pharmaceutical drugs, fish health management, St. Croix 2004, emergency management, the transboundary environment and more border summits.

The state and province share 16 crossings – gateways to New England and Atlantic Canada – along nearly 600 miles of border from northern Maine to the Bay of Fundy. The leaders hope the understandings will promote easier movement of people, goods and services to market.

Held Friday night and Saturday, the conference included work sessions on forestry, energy, transportation, border security, learning technology, online services, cultural development and the St. Croix International Watershed. About 125 people participated in the work sessions Saturday as business and industry leaders from both sides of the border attended, and Baldacci and Lord brought with them legislators, ministers and department commissioners.

“The ties between Maine and New Brunswick run deep,” the governor said during the luncheon at the Edmundston Convention Center. “We not only share a border, but we also share a culture, a history and a people.

“Importantly, we are here to discuss ways in which we can expand upon these relationships,” he said. “Some of the items we are agreeing to today are tied to the establishment of a North East Atlantic Region [NEAR], which will include New Brunswick, Maine, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.”

NEAR is an economically defined region where growth transcends the limits of borders. The region already works together through several agencies including Business Across Borders, universities, and the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Conference.

Speaking in French and English, Lord said the mission to increase cooperation between Maine and New Brunswick was accomplished.

“We want to work together,” he said at a dinner at the Madawaska Elementary School on Saturday night. “Cooperation between us is very important. It is essential for us to cooperate as neighbors.

“It is beneficial for our citizens,” he said. “We have found specific areas to work together, and this promotes regional cooperation.”

Supporters of the extension of Interstate 95 north from Houlton to the St. John Valley were disappointed in the session on transportation. Dealing very little with the road, it focused on a new port of entry at Calais-St. Stephen and facilitation of traffic there and at Houlton, Aroostook County’s only commercial port of entry.

In 1985, the only other Maine-New Brunswick summit was organized by then Maine state Sen. Paul Violette of Van Buren and New Brunswick Member of the Legislative Assembly Percy Mockler of St. Leonard, New Brunswick. Mockler, New Brunswick’s current minister for intergovernmental and international relations, organized the weekend conference with state Rep. Rosaire Paradis, D-Frenchville.

“We committed some time ago to develop economic links with our neighbor Maine,” Mockler said at the opening ceremony Friday night. “1842 [the Webster-Ashburton Treaty] separated us, but we have common beliefs and we share much, including our people.”

Many at the conference said the meetings should continue, if not annually, at least every two years.