Business Leaders Applaud Steps to Enhance Canada’s Presence in the United States

September 17, 2003

The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) applauds the federal strategy announced today to enhance Canada’s trade and policy advocacy presence in the United States.

“This welcome effort will contribute significantly to the management of our most important bilateral economic and security relationship,” said Thomas d’Aquino, the Council’s President and Chief Executive. The CCCE is composed of the CEOs of 150 leading Canadian corporations.

The strengthened representation will elevate Canada’s presence in the United States with government and business at the regional, state and city levels. “It recognizes the inescapable reality that all politics in the United States is local,” said Mr. d’Aquino. “This will help to identify and deal with emerging issues faster and more effectively and to generate a broader and deeper network of partnerships with our American neighbours.”

Mr. d’Aquino added that this expansion of Canada’s representation and level of activity should be just the first step toward a revitalization of the Canada-United States relationship.

To this end, the CCCE proposed a detailed plan early this year, the North American Security and Prosperity Initiative. The initiative calls for action on five fronts: reinvent the border; regulatory efficiencies; a comprehensive resource security pact; steps to rebuild Canada’s military capability; and the creation of a new institutional framework to foster coordination and prevent conflicts.

The Council was Canada’s private sector leader in the development of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Council also has had a long involvement in regional and global trade and investment issues. In recent months, the CCCE has strongly promoted the successful realization of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Agenda.

The Council’s objectives are to pursue a three-fold strategy: helping to build a new economic and security partnership in North America, pursuing closer regional arrangements in the hemisphere and across the Atlantic and Pacific areas, and focussing on strategic bilateral partnerships.

The CCCE is Canada’s senior business organization. Its members head companies that administer in excess of $2.1 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of more than $500 billion and account for a significant majority of Canada’s private sector investment, exports, training and research and development.

The members of the Executive Committee are: Chairman Richard L. George, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc.; Council President and Chief Executive Thomas d’Aquino; Honorary Chairman A. Charles Baillie; and Vice Chairmen Derek H. Burney, Dominic D’Alessandro, David L. Emerson, Gwyn Morgan, Gordon Nixon and Paul M. Tellier, the chief executives respectively of CAE, Manulife Financial, Canfor Corporation, EnCana Corporation, Royal Bank of Canada and Bombardier Inc.