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well good afternoon or good morning everyone depending on where you're joining us from today and welcome to today's session to review the close economic ties between new york and the provinces of quebec and ontario and we couldn't have two better subject management matter experts that is for today's session to help us to understand that relationship and how it can help to expedite a post-pandemic rebound in the economy of all three markets catherine lubier delegate general of quebec's delegation to new york and ian todd ontario's representative to the united states based at the canadian embassy in washington dc welcome uh both catherine and e into our session today i'm john costanzo executive director of maples new york chapter i joined in june of 2020 to help launch its presence here in new york in the new york metropolitan area and that was after serving as president of pure later international for the previous 18 months pure later's u.s company it's a pleasure to join our distinguished guest today to discuss this important trade and trilateral relationship between new york and the provinces of ontario and quebec first as for today's agenda uh after a brief overview of our organization we'll have some introductory remarks by both ian and catherine followed by an in-depth discussion regarding our trade relationship and then we'll have some time for you to ask some questions but before we begin a little housekeeping i you may have noticed your phones are muted so we can have the best audio experience today not because we don't want to hear what you have to say if you have any questions for our panelists please be sure to enter them into the zoom chat box we're also recording today's event and a copy will be made available to everyone through follow-up communication from maple and again questions are welcome so please be sure to enter those into the zoom dashboard and we'll be monitoring that throughout the presentation today as for maple our community is growing our members now are represented across 21 business sectors uh and uh most of 80 percent that is of our members serve at the director level or above in more senior roles and you can see across the bottom here the industry sector is that represented it's a very wide spread and the color chart i think depicts that quite well and our geographic footprint is equally broad maple members are based throughout 17 canadian and u.s markets stretching from vancouver and la in the west to montreal new york in the east and our split of membership between the u.s and canada is also quite balanced sixty percent of our members are based in the united states 40 in canada so again a well-balanced organization with members having interests in both the us and canada and we're growing we're pleased today to welcome two new executive members both from vancouver miss olena polisky managing director of art one translations whose agency provides multilingual translation translations that is she could help me i think work for firms internationally and uh marco dekovic vice president of public affairs at global container terminals a company that operates terminals in the ports of vancouver new york and new jersey and we're excited today to announce that the government of quebec has joined maple through the delegate general office in new york the avenue to catherine and the quebec delegation team so we're growing and thriving and looking forward to uh continuing to expand our community throughout the united states and canada and one of the ways maples brings our members value is through is through what we refer to as storytelling or cross-border storytelling for instance our most recent interview conducted was with nigel neal senior trade and investment commissioner at the consul general of canada in new york who provided great insights into the mission of the consulate here in new york and their many trade and investment initiatives you can find that posted on our maple website if you'd like to hear nigel's interview and our monthly momentum newsletter is a platform for members and partners to share cross-border insights with other members our recent articles have included a very insightful forecast if you haven't seen it yet on the canadian economy in 2021 by rsm chief economist joe bruelis to quote joe i think he said something along the lines of we're two countries separated only by a different currency and an equally interesting uh article was uh written by in on diversity and equity and inclusion uh work that we've done here at maple and a model for secure networking and communications from toronto based qa consultants so please if you haven't seen those i'd encourage you to go to our website and review those articles in momentum now as for what's coming next in quarter one we have a very full uh agenda if i can get to that here we go first in southern california our next event is on march 4th we have presentations from kenobi martens and rsm planned for that event and then our spring event here in new york on st paddy's day we'll celebrate not only st patrick's day but uh also we'll hear from the toronto stock exchange and pure later international and then last but not least at the end of the month uh british columbia will hold an event and a presentation from brookfield on the la development projects including the la fashion district so hopefully you'll be able to join us for all of those events and you can rsp for these again on our website but now let's turn our attention to today's event by beginning to welcome our guests first uh it's my pleasure to welcome ian todd ontario's representative to the u.s today uh ian who's appointed by ontario premier doug ford in january of 219 his priorities are driving trade and growth between the highly integrated ontario and new york economies supporting u.s companies in global expansion through contacts with ontario companies and opportunities and he served as political advisor to several premiers federal uh provincial cabinet ministers two federal leaders of the official opposition and the prime minister of canada so welcome ian we pleasure to have you with us today and if i can jury rig this slide here there we go okay and it's also my distinct pleasure to welcome catherine lubier delegate general of quebec in new york is our guest uh catherine also has a equally interesting career and one second she was appointed uh on february 19th former uh deputy chief of staff in the quebec premier office before that where she led the transition of the new government from 216 to 218 she served as a general manager in the office of the president then alliance communication global director for renault nissan mitsubishi based in paris a good industry experience as well as government experience and in government she served as advisor to prime minister stephen harper from 213 to 215 with uh on relations with quebec and to conduct negotiations with the government of quebec and key organizations associations in the private sector so catherine welcome to you as well to our session today so uh before we begin today's discussion we'd ask both our guests to first provide us with a brief overview of their organization's mission here in the state so if we would can we begin with you ann sure and good afternoon everyone and greetings from washington dc uh thank you john for the opportunity to participate in this this very important discussion and on behalf of ontario thank you to the maple business council for hosting this session and and for the great work that you're doing in new york and and your colleagues as well across canada and the united states and it's always a pleasure to participate in these sessions with my quebec counterpart and good friend catherine luvier i'd like to start by briefly describing my role in ontario's presence in the united states so we have trade and investment offices located in new york chicago dallas and san francisco my office is situated as john mentioned in the canadian embassy in fact it's the only embassy in the world to be located between the white house and capitol hill which speaks to the bond in the relationship between our two countries i'm obviously working from home today so apologies in advance if my irish terrier finnegan starts barking my team in washington focuses primarily on federal engagement on capitol hill the white house administration namely the offices of the us trade representative agriculture energy commerce and the state department we interact with key staff for the ways and means committee the northern border caucus finance energy and natural resource senate committees but we also spend an equal amount of time at the sub-national level working closely with the governor's offices and state representatives it's an extremely important uh relationship uh at that level which will i'll expand on further during the q a regarding ontario's trading relationship with the united states and particularly new york state our common history geographic proximity shared economic interests and interconnected supply chains resulted in over 300 billion dollars in two-way trade last year if ontario to put it in context if ontario were a stand-alone country we would be the third largest trading partner to the united states and ontario accounts for more than half of the merchandise traded between canada and the us ontario is the number one export destination for merchandise trade for 19 states and number two for an additional nine states i'd like to describe ontario as as the workshop of canada one uh our you know our manufacturing capability is is really unrivaled and nearly 200 million consumers live within a day's delivery by truck and rail of our province we have an extensive network of five international airports 80 regional airports and 15 road rail and marine border crossings to the u.s eight of those 15 border crossings are with new york state ontario new york two-way trade totaled over 22 billion dollars last year and the goods we import and export with new york range from precious metals to telecom equipment for mobile phones medications prepared foods petroleum products motor vehicle and aircraft parts and paper goods but our most highly integrated industries are automotive steel and aluminum ontario is also a leading north american center for financial services from banking insurance in capital markets to disaster recovery data centers and financial app developers we are a global leader in fintech including mobile payments cyber security trading analytics and blockchain and ontario is the second largest i.t cluster on the continent with a wealth of world-class tech talent in conclusion regarding covet 19 as ontario and new york look to replenishing personal protective equipment and medical equipment stockpiles we have unleashed our world-class manufacturing might to meet the ppe demands for healthcare professionals and frontline workers working together is something that comes naturally to ontario in new york and working together is how we can best ensure adequate availability of ppe for our citizens both now through competitive sourcing and moving forward through shared manufacturing solutions i would also draw your attention to the exciting north american rebound initiative which we are a proud partner with quebec and hundreds of north american organizations i believe catherine will describe this this initiative in more detail as the current health crisis reshapes our world it is vital that new york and ontario commit to fighting protectionism and promote the free flow of goods and ultimately opening up our shared border to once again enjoy travel tourism and the ability to visit family and friends on both sides of our border and with that uh thank you again and and i look forward to our discussion sorry thank you i had it on youtube thank you very much for a very informative overview again if those of you i apologize if my slides were blocking uh ian's image uh he was uh making a very nice presentation there and i apologize if i uh disrupted that uh catherine i would like to turn it over to you as well yes well thank you john and uh i'm thrilled to be joining uh ian todd today for this discussion and i apologize in advance i'm on my cell phone instead of my laptop so it's not as convenient so as you said i was appointed in 19 february of 19 and i oversee i'm the delegate general in the u.s but i particularly oversee the mid-atlantic region and that includes the office in washington d.c and we have also offices and i have colleagues in new england in the midwest chicago as well as los angeles and smaller offices in houston atlanta silicon valley and uh per person also in in philadelphia so we have a civ network in the us and about 30 offices in the world and we we work mainly on investment and trade but also making links with academia recruiting talent accompanying our cultural industry and of course on the political level all the files touching on i would say promoting our interests but also defending our interests when it's time to do so and uh you know this is a good time for us we have very similar priorities as uh the ones as the federal administration of course the cove the joint coveted recovery same for new york new york state we're in constant contact with the governor's team on on covid we share a border and so it's it's extremely important that we talk to each other about the border and and health measures but also you know we work very well on a greener economy when i came in i pushed a message that quebec was the best partner for decarbonization of the northeast particularly of new york and i think the message was heard in many many ways including uh for uh the transmission of more clean hydroelectricity to new york um the economy uh in quebec were 8.5 million of population and currently uh show a 8.8 unemployment rate uh where canada is about 9.4 percent unemployment so before the crisis we were that that percentage was very low and we're extremely focused on resorbing our debt and moving ahead with stimulus we export 92 billion to the world and 64 billion of that in the u.s so we value very much our first trading partner and we don't take the relationship for granted that's why we are present in the united states and we engage with our companies uh either exporting or wanting to export for the first time and to give you an idea this uh the level of exports to uh new york is uh just over 8 billion well to put this into perspective that's more than we export to france germany uh and the uk combined so uh new york and and i think quebec and especially montreal have a sort of a love story uh you know new yorkers like our creativity our artists and the first the first destination for businesses in quebec is new york is manhattan these days i have a couple priorities of course as i said accompanying small medium large companies to do more business with new york and in the us generally but also to um you know and i think we'll talk about that later um work on this wonderful project this fantastic project of exporting more hydroelectricity to new york which will bring cleaner air and better health to new yorkers create jobs and contribute to the prosperity of quebec and canada as a whole we're also you know quebec is critical mineral rich so those critical and strategic minerals present in uh the battery of the future the telecom uh uh telephones and uh even in medicine uh these critical minerals are present also in ontario and uh but certainly in quebec and so we're we're pushing uh these minerals so that we can reduce the dependency of the us on china which is an objective of the the previous and the current administration and more particularly um we want to be the the new hub in north america for uh the components in the battery cell uh and that will go in the batteries for electrification of the fleet of the large oems and again or complementary to what's uh going on in ontario we have a very i think strategic good strategic vision of the supply chain in the auto industry and how quebec can contribute with its uh expertise hydroquebec expertise but also minerals so that's another really important uh one for us and we offer also recycling solutions for those batteries with our companies in quebec you spoke about the rebound the north a erican rebound it's north americanrebound.com when the covid crisis started we thought wow there's a a real movement of of uh turning uh towards ourselves and thinking we should you know protectionist movement and so we thought it was important to give a voice to all those companies and manufacturers that advocate to keep our supply chains open and i don't have to explain to you but we're so integrated and we would you know auto inflict some damages on ourselves if we we would uh interfere with these uh critical supply chains and we know that more than ever during this covet crisis so there's about 650 000 business council chambers of commerce that have joined the rebound and when we go and meet with legislators and other uh important influencers we're not alone we're strong of of this group and hopefully you know strong of of the maple business council members as well because i think we we all advocate for a joint recovery and uh and keeping our our our trade open um yeah and in conclusion i would say we hear a lot about made in america these days but um you know i think our message will be let's build north american and let's build greener north american our electricity is 99.6 percent from renewables sources in quebec and that means that we produce green as well the greenest aluminum in the world that we export those export hydroelectricity export projects are the most important renewable projects in north america right now and hydro quebec is the largest renewable generator in north america and you know around hydroquebec grew a bunch of companies able to put charging station right into new york city help buildings be greener help trucks be greener and so we've engaged very very energetically with new york uh public contracts but also new york businesses to partner up and speed up electrification and the greening our of our economy and i think that's probably the most important angle that i can bring uh in this introduction today thank you catherine that was excellent i appreciate that overview and we're going to get into hydro in particular in a minute or two but before we uh go to that question i i think i'd like to get this big one out of the way first which i'd ask both of you to comment on we've all seen the recent uh executive order by president biden to buy american which i'm reading up on now i understand is different than by america and i'd appreciate your insight into that legislation i know canada and the us are working to try to figure out how to work that because as you mentioned i think both you mentioned we're a highly integrated economy now but how do you see that impacting trade particularly the trade here with the new york market and uh maybe we can start with you ian if that's okay sure well thank you john well there's there's no question we're we're very disappointed the u.s administration has chosen to move ahead with the new executive order on on buy american which would certainly restrict access to u.s government procurement and these by american policies they they do disrupt existing long-standing ontario u.s new york cross-border supply chains but we don't we don't take these important relationships for granted and in that regard ontario has recently taken a proactive approach by pursuing what we call strategic investment procurement agreements uh the acronym being sipas and we're doing this with with a number of u.s states and and most recently with our good friends in the beautiful state of maryland uh first agreement of its kind for ontario and we're very excited about the potential uh for this this agreement and and those that that follow and these these agreements will really secure improved access uh to investment and government procurement opportunities for for businesses on both sides of the border thank you ian thank you very much and catherine you mentioned that uh 64 billion i think of 92 billion of quebec's trade is with the u.s so how do you how do you see this new order well i mean the the protectionist uh measures are always bad news uh as ian said uh for us we think you know they tend to because we're so integrated they tend to drive prices up uh reduce competition and lose no there's a tone that's been given by the biden administration now with uh made in america and the executive order that said um we we canada's exempt uh from buy american uh as part of uh it being uh in the wto and gpa the global procurement agreement that doesn't mean that this can't change over time but uh i think that the first conversations between the president and the prime minister were encouraging they did know that they would work on keeping our supply chains open i think that the president also views canada as a partner and not an enemy i should say um and and i think it will be important to explain uh that those supply chains are vital um to both countries and that together because of of how we build things together we compete together uh including uh towards china and so by america is another story i think there is a risk of expansion of buy america and we we very strongly oppose an expansion of buy america and we intend to work with more manufacturing companies in the u.s and in canada to show how in fact we have suppliers on one side and the other side of the border for public contracts this would mean probably for a company that applies cement or liquid asphalt in in quebec they if they would need to find it somewhere else it means you know cost for that company it means that less roads will be built if it's a major road builder like the one i have in mind it means they will have to supply these uh materials uh from uh you know on barges that just in time won't be there there's a lot of disadvantage so i think manufacturers are behind us on this we feel this in in the north american rebound as well and uh and uh we need to work uh do our homeworks with legislators um in in washington dc and i'm uh i'm uh eager to work with ontario and and other provinces we we work often as team canada when we meet uh important uh legislators and uh and congress and and so on it was easier when we could do it uh by driving or flying to washington but it's still um i guess possible now when uh i think we have a good strong team canada message and uh we need to recover together and we need to continue to have uh you know built champions in north america together thank you thank you for that yes i i've seen although trade has grown right the volume of trade between our countries has grown uh there is a slowing uh or there is less trade let's say because we're both importing more from china than we were 10 years ago so i agree 100 the threat is not coming from each other it's it's from other markets and we need to work more closely essentially i mean you take the the aluminum tariffs sorry yeah the aluminum tariffs fire was it was an example of of team canada coming together and and basically saying you know um this is helping our foreign adversaries it's not helping our allies so exactly yeah so for this is for both of you to comment on uh one of the things that always impressed me about the canadian embassy staff and even the ambassador himself at the time uh to the u.s from canada and the provincial staff trade staff based here in the states and the consulates is that while serving as president of purely a logistics company i i never had to really promote how important it was to these groups to keep the supply chain open and keep the border uh flow of trade moving uh nicely and you know when you look at uh the things that have been uh created as catherine was alluding to with uh border state province uh infrastructure support right the lowering of customs de minimis and duty levels which i know canada was very supportive of and worked very closely with the us government on to increase the amount of importing exporting the harmonization of import export regulations this new window initiative that came out a few years ago that canada and the us have agreed to to ease clearance of material coming across the borders all of this uh is very very important to us and why why is that maybe you can expound a bit on uh the importance of keeping that border infrastructure and trade flow moving slowly so excuse me flowing nice and smoothly uh why don't we start with uh with ian on this one well um uh further to your point about our federal canadian colleagues in the embassy i just have to i have to say that ambassador hillman and and the team at the embassy are just a very talented and and dedicated group of professionals we're very very fortunate as canadians to have them in washington and and their colleagues across the united states and and as catherine mentioned we really do take a team canada approach on many issues and and it's working very well um i i think i think you're alluding to or trying to get to the question of when when are borders actually going to yeah that will be a next yeah the next question but you can press that now if you'd like yes well um um i i think that's it's it's the uh the question we're we're asking ourselves almost every day but it's very very difficult to predict um um uh you know i think at the moment the mandatory testing we have in place at the borders are our most important thing that we can do to go but fortunately as you mentioned our supply chains have remained very strong and and intact but it's it's virtually impossible to predict and that will happen but but fortunately uh supply chains have remained strong thank you catherine i know that quebec has worked very hard to keep that border between new york and canada open the champlain district and the initiative with plattsburgh and other things maybe you can comment a bit on that as well and when do you see things opening up again yes you know it's so important that i i didn't know that but when i took this job i ended up going to plattsburgh several times so the first time i went i went to uh the border and i met with the border agents and we we you know trade between uh quebec and new york i thought that was a constructive uh meeting and uh that speaks to the importance of it and and how you know we came from almost nothing at that border to a very sophisticated border today with uh strategic investments mostly from the federal government but we followed up with roads and uh whatever falls into the provincial jurisdiction we're very fortunate to have pre-clearance as well and and we're looking to have that for uh rail listen we my job is really to serve industry and industry wants to cross the border and as ian said that truck traffic is almost the same as as uh before covid almost to the same level which is excellent news so the border is open to essential uh with everything happening these days we are really carefully uh champions job creators exporters some of them have thousands of trucks a week you know several tens of of people and experts crossing the board every day we want to protect that that is what we want to do because this is working and if we undo that there will be some serious consequences so i'm in touch with the federation of uh trades of quebec which represents 50 or so companies and uh having phone calls from some of our exporters every day uh and working with the consul general in office in montreal as well to see okay what's changing is are the questions that the border changing is it more difficult how is you know going what is how's the border going to look in in a few years from now or we've sat down with the future border coalition to discuss you know how this could work it's easier for truckers because there's a lot of technology present already but you know most of all we're quebec is free trader we've been uh very reactive and instrumental in the negotiation of nafta of usmca and of ceta with uh with europe and so i think my one of my number one job and i know ian you said you think about that every day i do too we got to keep those people in goods moving yeah yeah even if it's the health and safety so i think it's a balance uh we have to be creative we have to find ways we have to have the technology we have to have the testing the vaccines and i think all of that is is building the plane as it as it's flying but i think we'll we'll get there and i'm always amazed that companies like pure later uh that uh you know don't they don't stop the logistics goes on and and so you know it is working so but we need to preserve that and find ways to have also people uh move to the border including health workers yeah i made several visits to washington this when i was with your later as president and uh my intention was to lob so to speak lobby uh officials there as an american right how important this border was and i i would come with these extensive notes and invariably the ambassador or somebody from the staff in in washington would take over the conversation they could could not have done a better job of explaining the importance of logistics and free trade and and the movement of goods across the border uh and uh i i think it is very important and i think a big part of the mission is to make sure that we here on this side and i think the the us does the same within canada right to make sure that we're harmonizing our regulations so that we're not obstructing trade i i think i'm gonna ask we have a james madore on the line from newsday and he had a question uh follow-up question uh regarding uh the buy american provision and i don't know robert if we can open up the uh yeah we can open it up for for james uh james is a business reporter with newsday here in long island uh i think he also has some roots uh in canada which he may share with us james are you there yes uh john thank you very much i appreciate you letting me uh join the conversation um so a full disclosure to your guests um my last name is french canadian and my father and all of his siblings were born um just south of quebec city so my question uh to you both is there is a lot of support that i hear from u.s manufacturers particularly manufacturers in new york state for president biden's buy american proposals which as you know focus on federal procurement and also focus on a requirement that federally funded transportation projects would have to use american-made building materials and i'm wondering if you can talk about how that could damage the very important trade relationships between new york state companies long island companies and their counterparts in quebec and ontario defer to catherine given your your quebec connection there yeah well i mean south of quebec city would be where where my family comes from so all the way you know closer to the main border so it's nice it's nice to see the connection there um well i think that you know um there are there are you know my friend gary douglas at the north country chamber and i have have visited and speak almost every week on the border and on the uh by american executive order of course buy america makes it so that companies like bombardier and novabus have to have uh supplies to a level uh from the u.s and as well assembly plants and that's that's a lot of them are in plattsburgh and so mr douglas is happy uh listen we've we've found a way to have a win-win uh the headquarters of these companies are in quebec there's jobs uh of course in quebec but there's some on the u.s side which is fine if if it's a win-win if if you know we're able to continue to build champions like austin bombardier and nova bus the i would say you know there's probably support out there but there's also people who know that this will uh uh further uh uh you know like i said earlier um increase costs and diminish competition and at the end of the day will be a lose-lose for both sides of the border um and uh you know we we have open communication with a lot of business association in new york chambers and uh and as well uh government channels and we have a bi-national caucus that looks at these trade issues and we have a lot of discussions on on how to make it a win-win for both quebec and new york and i'm confident that uh ahead uh you know we'll team up together and and continue to to build this this great regional superpower that we've become which is ontario new york the great lakes area uh if you look at the gdp of this region it's it' uh it's pretty impressive um so we'll see what's ahead but i know uh uh very good allies at the border on both sides of of the house i mean you know it doesn't matter if if they're republican or or if if they're democratic democrat i think that elected representatives at the border understand that it's important that we continue to uh to keep those supply chains open thank you thank you james did you have one other question before i um go back to um just just quickly echo uh uh comments uh you know when you actually sit down and start having the conversation with elected representatives in both parties and business in the united states they do people do very quickly recognize and acknowledge the the importance of of the the regional uh relationship and and just how how impressive it is really when you look at it um i mean there's there's almost 700 000 jobs in the state of new york alone that depend on on bilateral bilateral trade relationship between uh between canada and the us i mean it's just it's just very very significant and people are very quick to to acknowledge and recognize the importance of of the region and that continued growth thank you ian yeah pure later had 100 people here on long island uh dependent highly 100 actually on trade with canada so i couldn't agree more um i'm going to come back to hydro power in a moment uh catherine because i'd like to get your perspective on on how that's progressing between new york but i want to go first ian because in the news we're all seeing quite a bit of uh splashback so to speak on this decision made to shut down the keystone pipeline and uh perhaps and you can give us a bit of your perspective on that and how that affects the relationship currently between the us and canada well it's it's uh it's uh it's it's disappointing uh uh you know i i we work closely with with our colleagues in in alberta and and of course quebec and saskatchewan with respect to keystone xl and and and most recently uh the decision coming on and bridges line five which which runs through uh michigan and supplies a great deal of fuel to uh for home heating in the state of michigan and would impact factories in in several states including southern ontario an airport in toronto and the province of quebec as well so we're we're very actively engaged on on that issue with our federal colleagues in other provinces and and the state we spent a great deal of time on yeah thank you i wanted to get that question because somebody had asked that question and i knew it was going to come up again so thank you for for addressing that um captain coming back to you on the hydro power initiatives governor cuomo has set a date in the future where all new york state government would be completely sustainable carbon neutral and has expressed openly that we need to get that power system set in place so we can get hydro into new york to uh meet our needs sustainably so can you give us an update on how that initiative is going and what we can expect in the future sure with pleasure so as i said i think it's a fantastic project when i when i was appointed i i thought there is a surplus of clean hydro electricity that we have in quebec there is a desire and a ambitious governor uh with uh at the time the clcpa has been passed it was in the works uh that uh that bill that that makes it uh that uh uh contains the objectives of the state with regards to climate change and then uh the guard the same governor had promised to close down the nuclear plant indian point and that energy would have to come from somewhere else and and that's part of the reason why i took this job i thought this is this is a good situation but we need to make this work and i think the the way the way that uh and you know it's a tremendous legacy that that we have um uh in quebec it's an amazing legacy from those who have been uh there before and we were just talking about the bose region south of quebec city that's where my grandfather came from and he helped build the beijing so he worked on the construction site so i'm also very proud of that um i think one of the things we needed to do was go back to stakeholders go back to ngos go back to uh government uh elected representatives and go back to unions and and everyone and and just explain why we want to do this what's the driver and answer questions you know on where does the hydro come from how do you manage your environmental aspects how do you work with your communities we've just announced a tremendous project for more wind farms in quebec with the enu nation for example and we have a very strong alliance with the cree nation so i think there was a lot of education to do and just explain what's the driver what's our dna why are we doing this and so effectively we did myself and my staff over 250 need things and and it sort of created a way and paved the way for uh you know our politicians to be able to go forward with this and one of the big changes that was required was the regulation and a change in regulation was announced in september allowing first for clean hydro to be recognized as a renewable energy in new york and second to be able to bid on uh requests for proposals for energy in the state that rfp has been launched at the beginning of the year uh hydroquebec the company in quebec which is an independent company from the government but providing dividends to the government is preparing submission uh to sell energy to channel energy and also to build an additional or or several additional um transmission lines and so we were thrilled when governor cuomo repeatedly and most recently in the state of the state doubled down saying that he would like to get it get it done for once and and get the energy from canada quebec all the way down to new york city because that's where we're not able to to uh bring electricity we're exporting since 100 years in the north uh of the state but not in new york city so what where the big peakers are and uh it's a it's an hvdc cable it's a cable partly under water under champlain and and the hudson river and it's a 333 mile electric cord you could say that will uh that will allow us to to clean the air and and increase the health of of new yorkers so that's that's about 2 000 jobs in new york there's a similar project as you know to get more energy through maine to massachusetts that's i think 1600 jobs for the construction so the advantages are our job creation economic benefit health benefit and of course cleaning up the air and uh and that's uh of utmost importance for us in quebec the government of quebec as well as as uh as governor cuomo so the timeline for the rfp is well established it's public so uh next summer we should have a clearer idea of which bids have been uh put forward and and what nice serda will decide on those debts that's a great image you just presented us a giant electric cord 330 miles long i'd like to switch a little bit we have a lot of folks online here today that are in the tech industry or digital business so to speak and all of us are obviously invested heavily in that whole area of business and i read recently that the tech industry along the card running from 401 to from waterloo to toronto and of course quebec itself as well are now rivaling the tech talent in silicon valley the question i have is why is this and what can you share with our guests today about this and how they might tap into that town maybe start this one with ian sure well ontario's very talented workforce has helped drive this uh tech corridor with leading clusters in in waterloo which is very well known toronto and ottawa of course and to be the second largest information technology sector in north america after california something we're very proud of and is is growing rapidly toronto as i've mentioned earlier is north america's number three market for tech talent after the san francisco bay area and seattle and and more than two-thirds of ontario adults have a post-secondary education this is a rate higher than any other uh of the 37 member countries belonging to the organization for economic cooperation and development the oecd it's an extremely high number of post-secondary grads and the university of toronto another example ranks among the top 20 global universities the university of waterloo it graduates they they are the second most frequently hired by six silicon valley companies and and many of these graduates are now uh choosing to remain in ontario uh which which drives that uh tech corridor as well and and again for any any companies that are interested in tapping into this ecosystem uh by all means please reach out to me and and be happy to support you on that thank you ian catherine do you want to touch on the the tech market in quebec and the talent available there sure all right thank you thank you and i think you know in the uh in the 90s uh montreal positioned itself for the multimedia uh industry and invested uh heavily into training of uh the young workforce and that that has paid off a lot and we were able to attract number of companies and today these same uh trainee and and now they're older but they're uh they're working in fintech companies they're working in tech companies and i'd say montreal continues to attract small mid-sized companies to seek advantage of the ai cluster uh that we have i think we're recognizing the world for the ai cluster that we've developed and especially in research and deep learning and we have players like sam song facebook google and amazon with presence in montreal and a lot of startups also from new york choose montreal uh recently we've had a swift ctrl a prop tech company a secured tech company called bux patrol the guarantors pro tech and insurance tech so this is definitely what we continue to attract we have a great pool of talent bilingual multilingual we also have access to no a family can buy a house in montreal that's quite important quality of life easy immigration uh with a hiring contract and we're talking couple weeks thanks to our collaboration with the federal government also and so and there's also the cool factor uh in in quebec i think quebec rhymes with creativity and that's something that a lot of industries are striving for these days sorry how do i meet you there thank you yes that's uh the a i wasn't aware that a.i market was so strong in quebec it's something i've learned today it's also a uh a major uh sector here in new york as you know uh so i think there's a good opportunity for collaboration there in the future as we both grow our economies uh maybe our last question it kind of relates to what we do sorry research project okay now i'm gonna say we do actually you're right and and we're collaborating and we have research projects together and observatories of uh ethical ai and so we're well engaged with new york on that topic okay thank you so i wanted another question and there's a few questions surrounding this a bit i know james had one uh regarding opportunities for businesses here in long island to invest and grow their business within the canadian market somebody else had asked a question i saw on the uh quite q a about the canadian banking industry being you know uh aggressive here uh in recent years and in fact we're going to hear from the toronto mock stock exchange tmx group uh in uh march about their efforts to provide capital the smaller mid-sized companies looking to invest in a canadian market so if you were advising a u.s company particularly one here in new york on the resources and support available to invest in canada to expand their business uh and perhaps conversely to secure business in canada to grow their business right from canadian companies that's a big question i know but if you could perhaps both give some insight around that topic i appreciate it we can start this one maybe with ian well with respect to new york-based companies new york state-based companies looking at ontario uh for expansion uh and investment uh of course we've got we've got the talented workforce that i talked about our banking system uh one of the most reliable in the world um and uh our education here uh uh quality of life cost of living there's just so many so many uh advantages to the ontario uh climate uh business climate that we're finding a lot of a lot of companies are are obviously looking to expand into the province it's it's uh seeing tremendous growth thank you thank you ian catherine if you were a long island company or a new york company looking to invest in canada what sector should they be looking at you think well if i was a long island a company i would speak to the long island association first where i was able to speak to talk about these topics um no but i mean we have an agency that's called invest quebec and we have very competent uh um uh people in new york then my office and we literally take a company by the hand uh whether it's looking for a dj partner or we prefer no acquisition that's sometimes it's positive um and then by the hand through the advantages that we have in terms of factors that we support um but also to have the meet with the business community in quebec and and so that they see you know potential clients potential uh partners we have some capital available of course catherine's screen seems to have frozen there hopefully it's not mine can you hear me again yes i can hear you okay yeah hopefully we get catherine back shortly and i think we're coming towards the end here so i'm going to just quickly wrap up if i could by sharing my screen um there we go you know i want to thank first uh i hope catherine can hear me catherine and ian for joining us today and giving us these insights that are going to help us continue the most important trade relationship i think between the united states and and canada and that is the trilateral strength of the relationship between ontario quebec and new york if i'm not mistaken uh 86 percent of new york's exports uh land in canada so i can't think of a more important market for the new york uh our new york constituents uh and the same is true as we heard from ian and catherine in reverse so thank you again for for doing this for us today uh what i would can you see my screen by the way yes yes okay great uh let me see if i could uh open this up and no of course i can't so we're gonna have i'm sorry if i if i cut out for a minute i'm sorry about that oh no problem thank you oh no trouble no trouble thank you um so um i was just saying i'm gonna wrap up here to say that we hope you consider uh becoming part of maple in the future uh one of the things i wanted to emphasize here is that we cover canada and the us economic ties we believe like like no other business community here in the states uh and in canada and joining maple brings a canadian u.s executive network to you as i mentioned over 80 percent of our members are at the director a higher level you can join us for hopefully in the not too distant future live events like this where you can network in person uh and now video or virtual uh to share insights through our content platforms and stay on top of key issues and initiatives uh we're very proud to be partners with the consul generals of canada here in the states uh the u.s commercial service the empire state development agency here in new york and other economic development agencies and stakeholders like the ontario government trade invest and quebec delegation if you'd like to know more about membership in maple i hope you'll contact me it's a very simple email address there uh john maplecouncil.org be happy to help you uh understand the benefits you might derive from membership in our community and you could always just go on our website www.maplecouncil.org to find out more information about our organization i want to thank everybody we had probably the best attendance ever since i've been with maple maybe there's been greater before but i think it's due to the quality of our panelists today and the importance of the subject matter so i thank you again thank you all of you for joining us and please be sure to join us on march 4th in our southern california event which i think you'll enjoy just equally well thank you have a great afternoon