Home The Ambassador Speeches and Statements May 26, 2005

Frank McKenna, Canadian Ambassador to the United States

Vermont Chamber of Commerce
Burlington, Vermont
May 26, 2005

Frank McKenna: For you to spend so much time with us means a lot. I just want to know who's running the State of Vermont today, we have all the power right here. But welcome everybody, bienvenu à tous. Je suis extrêmement heureux d'être parmi vous aujourd'hui pour prendre la parole et je suis ravi de souhaiter la bienvenue chaleureuse à tous nos amis francophones. Thank you for coming from both countries, from province and state all to join together in this very very special event and I have to say that having spent two days here with your leaders and having a chance to experience what's taking place in Vermont and coming to realize that this state is really doing well leading the United States in a number of areas and just doing well for its citizens and it may be undiplomatic to say but I can't help but say that you are uncommonly well served with your Governor and your Lieutenant Governor.

You've got superb leaders here in the State of Vermont. (Applause) Now I do have to say this that in Canada the Lieutenant Governor would probably represent a small example of our differences not of the many many things that we have in common. To start with instead of being one of the Doobie Brothers he would be un Dubé. Clearly he would be a Dubé and in fact he is a Dubé who became a Doobie. He would also not be a Lieutenant Governor, he would be a Leftenant Governor in Canada and considering that Vermont is one of the more liberal states in the Union, I think probably he should be called Leftenant Governor anyway (laughter) and start a new trend. Now I have to tell you that before I came here I did do a little homework about the State of Vermont just to understand what it was going to be like here and I discovered a couple of things that turned out to be rather interesting.

First of all, this is the leading state, the leading state in the Union for the production of maple syrup. It's the leading state in terms of the manufacture and production of marble, the leading state for the production of monument granite. It claims as one of its own, and I'm going to speak a little bit about this later, Chester Arthur, 21st President of the United States of America. It claims Cal Coolidge the 30th President of the United States of America and it also has more cows per person than any other state in the United States of America, most importantly of all. So, look thank you again to so many of you for supporting this visit. Many thanks to our fine host Kevin O'Donnell, Dwayne Marsh from the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and of course congratulations to Sonics Sonimax this year's exporter of the year.

The auto parts that you design supply to General Motors and Ford for example are shipped to all of our regions in Canada just to show you the integration of the economy. I understand that your Canadian sales have grown by more than 10% per year and just keep, just keep piling it on. We really hope that you'll just continue to expand your business which creates jobs and opportunity, which in turn creates wealth, which in turn creates the kind of revenues that help support the badly needed programs that every state and province has to administer. In fact, this very sector is probably the exemplar, probably the proof positive of just how integrated this economy is between Canada and the United States, I think the most integrated economy in the entire world.

The parts that go into cars are one of the most traded commodities of all the commodities that we have in North America. Most people would have no idea that before a North American car actually gets onto the car lot to be sold, the parts in it have crossed the border six times before it's finally assembled. Can you imagine, back and forth, back and forth, adding something here, something there and then back and forth six times before it's finally sold. Now that tells you just how critically important it is that we work assiduously together to keep the border open for commerce because we rely on each other so very very much. Congratulations to our winner but congratulations to all of your exporters because it's through the exportation of products and services made here in Vermont that you end up increasing the wealth of your communities and that in turn leads to an improved quality of life. If it were up to me it wouldn't be just Sonics that would receive this award for exports, it would the entire State of Vermont because there is no other state in the Union, this state is number one, nobody else exports more as a percentage of their economy to Canada than the State of Vermont. So we're deeply grateful for that relationship. It's precisely that relationship that defines the Canada-US relationship and I want to talk to you a bit about that today.

I want to talk to you about why we should be celebrating the depth and the breadth of the relationship and there could be no better place obviously to bring the message than to communities that live the relationship every single day of your life. Canada and Vermont are vitally important trading partners. Canada-Vermont trade is worth over 3 billion a year which is big business. It supports over 12,000 jobs in Vermont alone. Canada receives almost 40% of your exports, in fact Canada receives more exports from you, you sell more products to us than the 5 or 6 next largest markets that you have all rolled into one, that's just how big your trade is with your northern border.

And so that's why it makes sense when you're looking to expand your business base, as you should be doing and are doing, when you look at increasing the wealth of Vermont and Vermonters, when you look at trying to create a better quality of life for your citizens by having more access to better jobs and creating more wealth, then obviously the natural place that you would do that is the biggest market available to you which is right on your northern border and that's the Province of Quebec in the country of Canada and in terms of commerce it's not just goods going across the border but it's people as well. Some 2 1/2 million visits approximately back and forth across the border and that could be everything from a bus load of seniors going to Montreal to the casino or it could be a bus load of Canadians coming down here to ski in one of your great ski mountains and when you think of the value that's added to the respective economies as a result of that it's truly a dramatic figure.

And this trade really is a two-way street. Vermonters look to Canada to keep them warm, to keep them energized. You import over 400 million dollars worth of energy from Canada in every single year. We also are very proud that you look to Canada to keep you as sweet as you are. Over 80 million dollars a year is spent in sugars purchased from Canada. So Canada is heavily invested in Vermont. You may not know that some of the most familiar names in Vermont are Canadian owned employing thousands of local people. Names such as Triocin, Husky Injection, JP, Peerless Clothing, TD Bank, many of them being here today. Now I'm going to, because of the Vermont, Quebec-Vermont-Canada relationship and its power at wealth creation and because of the Canada-US relationship and its power at creating jobs and wealth for the two nations, I'm going to take a minute gratuitously to talk about the importance of trade in terms of the world economy and just how much wealth creation comes about to our respective economies as a result of that because I know at times it's somewhat controversial as to whether trade is actually good or bad for nations. Well, I think it's important for you to understand how good it can be. The Institute for International Economics has recently calculated that globalization has increased the standard of the United States of America by about 1 trillion dollars per year.

That translates into over 9,000 dollars per year for the average US household all as a result of America's integration in the world economy. In fact it's been projected that if you could get completely free trade on a global basis, another 500 billion dollars a year would be added to the US economy which would create another 4,500 dollars in the jeans of every single American. The same report says that eliminating all trade barriers could lift some people, no, not some people, 500 million people earning less $2.00 per day around the world out of poverty by 2015. Now imagine what a wonderful thing that would be that if you could lift 500 million people around the world out of poverty not only for the intrinsic good that that is that we should be pleased about but also the fact you're creating 500 million more consumers of the products and services that you and Canada manufacture. In other words, a rising tide that ..inaudible.. and we should never ever forget that in terms of the importance of trade around the world. Nowhere but nowhere has this trade relationship been more important than that between Canada and the United States. We've both been enormously enriched by the relationship. A lot of people on both sides of the border don't understand that this, not anything else, not China, not Japan, not the European Union, this commercial relationship is the largest commercial relationship in the entire world and nothing else is even close.

We do more business with you than you do with every country of the European Union put together. We do more business with you and the United States of America than you do, on one single border entrance than you do with the entire country of Japan. So that's just how vast this commercial relationship is. 1.8 billion dollars in goods and services every single day, a million dollars a minute is transacted in business between our countries. A truck crosses the border every 2 1/2 seconds. On average half a million people cross the border every single day. I mean these are vast numbers, overwhelming numbers but they're just consistent with the long term relationship that we've had. So it's all about jobs, 5 million jobs in the United States, 2 million in Canada all supported by this trading relationship.

We're also America's largest foreign investor and the number one export destination for 39 of your states, not just Vermont, 39 states call Canada their number one market in the world. We're your leading providers of energy at a time when the world is full of volatility and God knows it seems that volatility and energy just seem to go hand in hand, everywhere that there's oil and gas it just seems to create volatile relationships in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela but Canada is your number one source of energy for oil, for crude oil, for gas, for uranium, for electricity, not Saudi Arabia, not Iraq, not Venezuela but Canada and you can count on Canada as being a secure, safe, reliable provider of your energy into future. You might say when you look at the sheer depth and breadth of that relationship that we're very dependent on each other and that we put a lot of eggs in the same basket. Well, as a great comic once said, there's nothing wrong with putting all of your eggs in one basket provided you watch the basket and we spend a lot of time watching the basket.

As a result of that, we're opening or upgrading 9 new consulates in the United States in addition to the 12 offices we have in place outside of Washington. So in addition to Washington, we're opening up consulates all across the United States and that includes 20 new honorary consuls in communities all across the United States and it should be no surprise to you that when we're looking at the United States relationship, we pick our best and our brightest people to come down here, present company excluded of course. But Ron Irwin who is with me here today is one of Canada's great political stars and has had an outstanding reputation not only in government in Canada but in diplomatic circles. It's no surprise that he would be chosen to go to Boston and represent us there in that consulate which is one of our most important marketplaces. So all across the United States we're rolling out more and more consulates to honour and respect and to work at continuing to be vigilant about this most important relationship because we value the relationship and we want it to continue and we want very much to nurture it.

Now, lots of eggs in our basket but lots of eggs in your basket as well and I want to tell you this today and take a minute to talk about it, it's true you've got a lot of eggs in the Canadian basket but it's a pretty good basket to have your eggs in because Canada has spent a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of energy and a lot of money in making sure that it is a good, safe and reliable trading partner and that it really has its act together. Just let me give you a little bit of information that's not commonly known about the powerhouse of an economy that your northern neighbour is. At a time in the United States when your deficits for a variety of reasons are approaching half a trillion dollars a year, Canada has just finished this year with a significant surplus, the eighth consecutive year of surpluses that we've achieved as a national government. Did you know that Canada has actually reduced its debt by over 52 billion dollars over the last several years. In fact Canada is the only G7 country with a surplus in both our current account and in fact our federal government budget as well. Did you know that employment growth from 1997 to 2003 in Canada led the entire G7 by a huge margin and did you know at a time when you're going through a very difficult, a very divisive, a very prolonged social security debate in the United States of America with the overhanging fear of trillions of dollars in deficit into the future that Canada in terms of its social safety net and its long term pensions not only has a surplus but we have actuarially guaranteed that pensions will be fully funded for the next 50 years into the future. Did you know that the standard living growth in Canada over the last 6 years led the G7 by a huge margin or that our productivity growth is a strong second in relation, the second lowest as well in the entire world.

Did you know that Canada leads the world in terms of the number of population with university degrees, the leading users of Internet services in the world. We lead the world in Internet, Internet banking, enjoy the lowest telecom costs in the entire world or that we're heading into the 5th consecutive year of tax reductions bringing our corporate tax rate lower than that of many states in the United States or that we've been rated either number one or two over the last number of years by The Economist magazine as the best place in the world to do business and I'm not talking to you about these things to brag about them, although we have a saying I must say in the country that it ain't bragging if you done it, but I'm talking to you about these things to let you know that your northern neighbour is a very strong, robust, secure trading partner for you and that you have good reason to trust in that relationship. Now, having said that, to some extent there is a taking for granted that takes place between our countries in terms of the relationship and that may not be unnatural in your case. I think that it all goes back to Chester Arthur and it goes back to Chester Arthur because even though he is claimed by you as being from Vermont, over 100 years ago when he was President of the United States the most scurrilous thing that they could say about him is that he was really born in Canada and it's because of that fear that people in the United States have about being associated with being born in Canada that we have to be so sneaky in the way in which we participate in the United States economy. Now, we look like you and we talk like you so you assume that we are you but sometimes we're not. Now I know you know that hockey players tend to come from Canada. Wayne Gretzky comes from Canada, Bobby Orr comes from Canada. You would just assume that now wouldn't you? But I bet you didn't know that Eric Gagné who won the Cy Young award for best relief pitcher comes from Canada. You wouldn't assume that but it's true or that the winner of the Masters Mike Weir comes from Canada.

That would surprise you I'm sure or that Jason Bay who is the 2004 National League Rookie of the Year comes from Canada. I bet you didn't know that Steve Nash, the most valuable player in the National Basketball League is a Canadian. Most Americans don't know that but I bet you also didn't know that Shania Twain was a Canadian or Céline Dion was a Canadian or Sarah McLachlan or Bryan Adams or Rich Little or Alan Thicke or John Candy or Alex Trebek this is Jeopardy or that Donald Sutherland was a Canadian or Peter Jennings or Britney Spears, okay lied about Britney Spears but all the rest of them are Canadians. (Laughter) I was just checking to see if you were listening. All of the rest of them except Britney Spears are Canadians and I bet you didn't know that. But what you do know is that your neighbour is a Canadian and that your business associate and that the people who buy your goods are Canadians and to those of you in Vermont who are Canadian I say to you, or originally had your roots in Canada, I say how proud we are that you're part of this great North American economy that we celebrate together so much.

But I want to close really by saying just how much and how important it is that you recognize and value even though we take it for granted, families take their own relationships for granted. I have three children and they, we grew up taking them for granted and them taking each other for granted even though we wouldn't like to think that it was out of lack of affection, it's just something that you do because you have so much comfort and you know there's so much mutual love that it's easier to do that and I think that defines in some way our relationship but it is important at the leadership levels to foster this relationship. Now your Governor really gets it. He has been such a leader in promoting this cross border relationship and recognizing the important of it for Vermont and its citizens.

I think it's just an act of great vision appointing Lieutenant Governor Brian Dalby as special envoy to Canada and he's taking it seriously as well. We know how much he values the relationship and just how seriously it's being taken. So, we appreciate that enormously and we appreciate all of those wonderful personal ties that have developed across the border and we appreciate the emotional connection as well. Just this past Monday at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Canadians who died in the liberation of Afghanistan wrote to a wall honouring Americans who died in combat. As Canadians we were touched and honoured by the ceremony and those Canadians who have shed blood side by side with Americans all around the world whether it's the First World War or the Second World War or the Korean conflict or Afghanistan or Bosnia and all of those trouble spots around the world, we have fought side by side as one entity all fighting for the cause of freedom and we've appreciated enormously the closeness that's developed on the battle field.

Now, let me say this. We have in spite of the fact that we have of this closeness we do have a border between us and it's critically important that all of us work very hard to make sure that that border is secure on the one hand but that it's open to peace loving people on the other hand so that we can continue to have this extraordinarily close relationship that has characterized the 200 and some years of our history. In the Province of New Brunswick where I come from, people in Calais would cross the border to buy chicken in the United States and then the Americans would come back to buy milk in Canada. It's just that casual. We have one golf course where you tee off in Canada and if you hit the ball straight it goes into the United States on the first hole. If you slice it it goes to Mexico, if you hook it it goes to Greenland but (laughter) if you hit the ball straight you're going to be in another country. I mean that's the most amazing thing and here you have an opera house that's actually been featured in Ripley's Believe or Not built in 1901 that sits between the communities of Derby Center, Vermont and Rock Island, Quebec.

Now when you walk into the building you don't see a boundary line, I guess you do see a boundary line that's actually painted on the floor running through the reading room and the 400 seat opera house. The entrance to the library is in the United States but the volumes of books in the stockrooms are wholly in Canada and the stage and a few of the seats in the opera house are in Canada but most of the seats are in America. So we have to work together to make sure you don't need a passport to go to the washroom in the opera house. (Laughter) Anyway, let me sum up my feelings on Canada's whole relationship with a little bit of an anecdote. During the war of 1812, almost 200 years ago, friends and neighbours and even families found themselves literally at war with each other due to decisions that were made in larger political arenas, Americans warring with Canadians, imagine.

As July arrived that year the Americans found themselves hard pressed for many of the elementary provisions because of the hardships that had been created and in the face of that military action one of the things that they were particularly hard pressed for was gun powder and as a result of the fact that they were short of gun powder they made a decision which was very very sad to them and that is that there would be no 4th of July celebration. This is between Calais, Maine, St. Stephen, New Brunswick who had been friends for hundreds and hundreds of years and the Americans decided that because of the war and they had no gun powder there would be no 4th of July celebration. Well, they didn't want to use up the little bit of gun powder they had for the war in celebrating the 4th of July so what did they do, they borrowed their gun powder from the Canadians to celebrate the 4th of July as they'd always done before. Now what an example of such a trusting, respectful relationship is that and that to me characterizes what the relationship is all about. It may be about the biggest commercial relationship in the world, that's a fact. But the real heart and the soul of the relationship is in the friendships, in the family relationships, in the neighbours and the communities that have existed for hundreds of years side by side in mutual respect and in mutual love for each other.

We share so much in common. We share the same commitment to democracy. We share the same commitment to values. We share the same commitments to freedom. We share the same commitments to peace not only in our communities but around the world and I think that these two countries represent, at a time when the world is going through such violence and volatility, represent such a wonderful example to the world, two of the largest nations, two of the most wealthy nations, two of the most complex nations on the planet that we could have over 6,000 miles of border between us and have this wonderful, respectful relationship where at the end of the day we can call each other friend. I know it's important for you but it's particularly important for us because we value you as a friend, we value you as a family member and we value you as a neighbour and for us in Canada you're the only neighbour that we have. Thank you. (Applause)

Moderator: Thank you Ambassador. Would you like to take a few questions from the audience?

(Comments off mic and laughter)

Question: ..inaudible..?

Frank McKenna: No. (laughter) I'll say two or three things. First of all I'm not going to come here and say I'm here from Canada, I'm here to teach you and tell you how to run a health care system. That would be like saying I'm here Washington, I'm here to help you. I mean it's an oxymoron isn't it? We have very different systems and I think there are features of each that are very endearing but there are also other great systems around the world and I think people here would be wise to look at practices that take place in different places all around the world. The one thing I can say with some certainty is that the single fee payer model is one that is sacred in Canada. Trying to separate Canadians from their health care is like trying to get the sun passed the rooster. It just isn't going to happen. Canadians are very very committed to their publicly funded health care. Where there is debate in Canada is, from time to time the argument will be made that even though it's a single fee payer that there should be competition in the delivery of services, that just because it's a public system doesn't mean that all the services have to be delivered publicly by public servants, that you could allow competition in a number of areas that would allow the competitive environment to create the best possible efficiencies.

So that's a debate that rages from time to time in Canada but Canadians wouldn't give up on their system under any circumstances. The good thing about our system is that everybody is included. Rich, poor, no matter who you are or where you're from you receive complete access to health care and the good news as well is that if you're truly sick the quality of health care that you will get is the best or amongst, is amongst the best that you would get anywhere in the world. Where Canadians would find some complaint with their health care system is in terms of elective procedures, those procedures that aren't essential. There would tend to be waiting times which vary and it's something that people are trying to manage but there would tend to be a waiting time if you needed to get a knee surgery that was not critical but something that you would like to improve your general health then you would have waiting times built in often in situations like that.

The United States in my view at the top end offers the best health care in the world clearly. If you have a serious problem and have the financial resources or the right plan you'll get access to world leading health care, there's no doubt about that but there are features of the US health care system that a lot of people would say would need to be remedied and fixed. What is true is no matter which system you choose, ours, the US system or Scandinavians which tend to be a bit more like a hybrid, you will have cost accelerators no matter what you do and that can't be avoided. Health care is going to increase in every country in the world because of demographics. You have aging populations and you have the increasingly higher costs for drug therapies and for technologies and for the delivery of health care. So, it's (technical difficulty) of inflation and is a very difficult thing to deal with. Where I think, just speculating because I just came off the board of General Motors where I think the issue is going to be joined in the United States is when companies like GM and other large manufacturers increasingly have to confront the legacy cost associated with the health care part of their manufacturing costs.

In the case of GM and Ford I think it's about 1,500 dollars per vehicle that is associated with health care costs that are a legacy in origin and that tends to make them uncompetitive or less competitive against other manufacturing jurisdictions where health care cost is publicly funded. So, at some stage the United States is going to run into a challenge in trying to deal with that particular phenomena but I would leave the issue by saying that I wish you well in the debate. There are no miracles, there's no right solution but I would take the time to look at all of the delivery models that are available around the world. All of them have something to recommend to you as you go through that very vigorous debate.

Question: ..inaudible..?

Frank McKenna: Okay, a very interesting question and I'm not going to reflect a lot on the border with Mexico first because I'm not an expert on the issues there and secondly because it really wouldn't be respectful to the two bi-national entities that are more affected by it than Canada. It's fair to say this, the issues on the southern border are dramatically different from those on the northern border and we worry anytime leaders try to have a moral equivalency between the two. They're just different issues. Let's not pass judgement on either set of issues, it's just that they're different and they have to be approached very differently. The major issue on the Mexican border side from periods of smuggling and so on is the illegal immigration clearly and on the northern border that isn't an issue. But America will have to deal with this issue. I don't know what the right answer is. For hundreds of years literally America as part of its growth has been access to labour from Mexico and whether it's excessive or not or whether it needs to be better controlled or not is a legitimate issue but I would make this argument that free trade has made us all better off and we will always be able to find somebody or some sector that's not better off but that's not to say that overall this rising tide has lifted all boats and that's true for Mexico as well.

They've certainly increased the number of jobs and their manufacturing base has improved dramatically as a result of free trade. The United States has prospered from free trade and Canada and yet if you ask every country in a poll how they've done, most of them will say the other guys have done better than I've done. It seems very peculiar to me that everybody can lose in a deal, that if you ask Canadians they would probably say Americans did better and vice versa. I think the economies have adjusted magnificently to the new trade environment. One little example, you know, I was a supporter of free trade and my party was against it so it was a bit of a difficult situation for me. Ontario was very against free trade because of the wine industry that they've had which developed and was producing a lot of wine and they felt that free trade really would get California wines in and other wines in that would destroy the native wine industry and when free trade went ahead that was absolutely true, that's what happened.

It crushed the wine industry in Ontario and the farmers in Ontario what they did was to tear all the vines out that they had because they were producing crappy wine and they turned around and produced competitive wine and now they have some of the best wines in the world. In fact ice wine, Inniskillin and ice wine or other wines from the Niagara Peninsula are highly priced and the wines from the Niagara Peninsula are extraordinarily competitive with wines around the world because the new competitive environment forced them to deal with serving the market and the market was demanding better quality and I think generally speaking that's how human beings react when they're faced with a challenge. So, my view would be that even though, and I don't know about corn in Mexico, but even though specific people or industries might claim to have been temporarily affected, overall everybody in North America has been enriched as a result of the free trade environment.

(Comments off mic and applause)

Moderator: Before we close I would just like to recognize a couple more people. First, Dana I.. is the new State Director of International Trade for the State of Vermont. For those companies here in the audience that are interested in doing international trade especially in Canada there is a wealth of resources here in the state to help you out. Dana leads the state effort in that effort. If you haven't met her yet, please introduce yourselves to her, she's relatively new to the State of Vermont within the last couple of months and we're delighted to have her here. I would also like to invite to the podium Michel Marleau from the City of St. Jean as well to have a few comments.

Michel Marleau: Well on behalf of Mayor D..., he apologizes for having to leave so abruptly, he just wasn't feeling too well. He probably came down with what we call an overload of agenda syndrome. He's been, he works terribly, I mean he's in the office at 8:00 o'clock in the morning, Sometimes he forgets to leave. So, what he was telling me is that it's the first time this has ever happened to him in 26 years. So I guess we'll forgive him for that. He was just about to say and if I may continue (laughter) and this will be in the same line as Ambassador McKenna was saying is that most of our manufacturers in St. Jean have already made the world their market and we will tell them that.

St. Jean is home to multi-national companies such as Orlecon and T.. and to more regional entities such as Tremcon, M.., Olimel and S.. Most of you don't, probably don't know them. If you have dealt ..inaudible.. no matter where you are in Asian states, they've probably come from St. Jean sur Richelieu. P.. manufactures I don't how many millions of cedar fence every year. It drives our firemen crazy when we pack it and fire people are always afraid that we're to have a fire. It never happens. St. Jean sur Richelieu is a nice place to visit particularly in the summertime during our international hot air balloon festival, one of the very finest in North America ..inaudible.. Again this year St. Jean will host its Pan-Am Day on August 19th. It's a Friday so you can come all over, you can stay for the weekend and I've learned from Governor Douglas, he always says come to Vermont and spend money. When you come to St. Jean and spend money also. (Laughter) Over 10,000 free passes will be distributed to New England States during the month of July. Last year was our first experience and over 2,000 Vermonters took advantage of this package and came to St. Jean and enjoyed themselves during the hot air balloon festival.

Now if we're to develop new bilateral markets and establish a dynamic trade corridor between Montreal and Boston through Vermont, we need among other things a good four lane interstate highway from the border to Montreal and a more efficient border crossing at P.... Just a few weeks ago the federal and provincial governments agreed to invest within the next 18 months a total of 114 million dollars to complete more than, more or less 20 kilometres of the 35 remaining kilometres to be constructed between the border and St. Jean sur Richelieu. Now this is a start, it's a big start. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Governor Douglas, le lieutenant gouverneur Dalby and all his staff for their implication in this very sensitive transportation issue. ..inaudible.. 35 is not merely a regional issue, it is an international trade issue, a win-win for Montreal, the Province of Quebec and the New England states and mostly Vermont. Again, let me stress that I am more than pleased to be here today and looking forward to meeting you all in St. Jean. Thank you. (Applause)

Moderator: Once again thank you Ambassador McKenna for joining us today. I hope everybody enjoyed the presentation. I just want to mention that at lunchtime we will have the CEO of Jet Blue Airways David Neilman speaking as part of Senator L.. 's e-business conference and tele-work seminar so if you'd like to join us for that please go down to the registration desk. Thank you once again and congratulations again to Sonics on this year's exporter of the year award. They have a display over here to learn more about their products. I hope you'll please take advantage of that. I hope everybody has a great day. Thank you. (Applause)