Highway North investment

It is of the utmost importance that we connect the Northeast with the TransCanada Highway for security, defense and economic reasons. The TransCanada Highway, running from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, will be completed by 2008. This highway, the main Canadian artery, represents the best logical connection with our country and the timing cannot be better as we are in the final planning stages of our own completion of Highway North.

Let us call this connection with Canada, a country of more than 32 million, the Inter-Continental Connection North. It will open a new way or new sources of security protection, of our safety and increase economic advantages to everyone in our region, in all of Aroostook County and our state.

The Department of Homeland Security recognizes that northern Maine is a proven entry point for terrorists. We need to relocate our border stations to larger spaces where adequate inspection processes can be properly executed. Let us ask the Department of Homeland Security for the financial investment into the construction of border facilities with adequate spaces that will improve our security and line Highway North with the TransCanada Highway. The Canadian government is in full agreement as they are also interested in new border facilities with a new international bridge.

Recently, the Canadian government, with the Province of Quebec, announced it would complete the last stretch of the TransCanada Highway from Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, to the New Brunswick frontier by 2008. What does this mean for central and northern Aroostook? It means the St. John Valley population would most likely travel northwest toward Riviere-du-Loup for their shopping rather than traveling south toward Caribou and Presque Isle and to the West toward Fort Kent and beyond. It will also mean that most will board the Trans-Canada Highway upon its completion in 2007 toward Woodstock, New Brunswick, bypassing most of Aroostook, if our Highway North is not constructed.

Who can accept the negative impact this would have on our economy and prosperity? On the contrary, if we build our needed highway with a Canadian connection, we will reap the economic benefits of the hundreds of Canadians and Americans who will board, both ways, to our highway every day. This is a critical path, our one big chance, for fairness and economic growth to come into play for Aroostook County and the rest of Maine.

Let us not repeat the enormous mistakes that were made when Interstate 95 was cut short at Houlton, 90 miles short of its destination. Termination of Highway North at Caribou, approximately 25 to 35 miles short of the St. John Valley, goes against good common sense. Aroostook County is larger than New Hampshire. We have a wealth of talent, skills and resources to offer. We are, in many ways, the Crown of America where our words and ethics are still as good as gold. Why support any injustices against the good people of the St. John Valley?

Let every Aroostook city and town understand, through your councils, that our reports are unbiased, realistic and a must for our economic future and prosperity. We ask you to support our honest resolve. We ask you to help us convince our political action committee members for their honest support. We ask you to help us convince our Department of Transportation, our federal senators and representatives, and our state politicians of the true new realities. We ask you to put aside any division that could be detrimental to our families and to the good of our population.

Our future is at stake if we make a wrong highway decision. Financing Highway North is not a burden for our federal government. It is only a third of the cost of one sophisticated bomber. Our federal government does not talk millions anymore, they talk about billions. For our state, Highway North is a great investment.

It is time that we all realize that we are part of the United States and of our great state of Maine. It is time to complete our Highway North and let us get our connection to the Trans-Canada Highway where it belongs. We will all tremendously benefit. Many experts say that today’s decisions will have great impacts on our security and on the economy front for the next 50 years. People will move out from large municipalities to smaller peaceful ones.

Let us realize that 9-11 will change many priorities and let us welcome them with common sense and vision. In the meantime, let us look at the future positively. Please support the completion of Highway North to its logical end.

John F. Dionne is a retired businessman from Grand Isle.