The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) is a statutory collaborative regional U.S.-Canadian nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing common issues and interests like encouraging global economic competitiveness and preserving the natural environment. The

Canadian provinces and territories Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

, the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

along with the American states of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

and

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

compose the membership. It is designed to improve cooperation and communication between member jurisdictions as well as improve communication between the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

and

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

. PNWER provides the public and private sectors a cross-border forum for unfiltered dialogue that capitalizes upon the synergies between business leaders and elected officials who work to advance the region’s global competitiveness.{{citation needed, date=September 2011 Former BC cabinet minister and legal scholar

Andrew Petter Andrew J. Petter (born 1953) is the chair of Innovate BC, a provincial Crown agency responsible for supporting innovation and growth in the technology sector in British Columbia. Andrew Petter served as President and Vice-Chancellor of Simon ...

describes the PNWER as one of North Americas most sophisticated examples of regionalist

paradiplomacy Paradiplomacy is the involvement of non-central governments in international relations. The phenomenon includes a variety of pratices, from town twinning to transational networking, decentralized cooperation, and advocacy in international summits. ...

Program areas

From agriculture to workforce development, PNWER tackles a breadth of regional issues through working groups. Each working group is headed by two co-chairs, one from the private sector and one from the public sector, and coordinated by a PNWER staff member. PNWER manages 20 different working groups that focus on key sectors of the regional economy. These include; Agriculture, Arctic Issues, Border policy, Cross Border Livestock Health, Disaster Resilience, Economic Development, Energy and Environment, Forestry, Innovation, Invasive Species, Mining, Tourism, Transportation and Infrastructure, Water Policy, Workforce Development.

History

The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region was established in 1991 by statute in the organization's original seven legislative jurisdictions – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska in the United States, and British Columbia and Alberta in Canada. The Yukon joined PNWER in 1994, Saskatchewan joined in 2008, and the Northwest Territories joined in 2009. From the beginning, all state and provincial legislators were members of PNWER. The governors and premiers were added to the PNWER governance structure in 1993. The proposal establishing PNWER passed with 701 out of 703 sitting legislators voting in its favor following a three-year process initiated by the Pacific NorthWest Legislative Leadership Forum (PNLLF) in 1988. Six working groups were established, including environmental technology, tourism, recycling, value-added timber, workforce training, and telecommunications; some of these merged into or were replaced in later years by new areas of concentration. Critical in establishing the initiative to create the PNWER were Washington State Senator Alan Bluechel and Deputy Premier and Minister of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs for Alberta Jim Horsman. Bluechel served as the organization's first president. Another President was

Mel Knight Melvyn Reginald Knight (born July 30, 1944) was the Minister of Energy of Alberta and a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Early life Mel Knight was born July 30, 1944 in Beaverlodge, Alberta. His fat ...

, a former Energy Minister of Alberta. PNWER incorporated official private sector participation – including the non-elective public sector, and nonprofit organizations and NGOs in 1994; with that, a private sector council mirroring that of the organization's legislative delegate council was established and private and public sector co-chairs became part of the working group structure. Each working group has its agenda set by representatives of the private industries.Editors Mark Amen, Patricia McCarney, Noah J. Toly and Klaus Segbers
''Cities and Global Governance: New Sites for International Relations.''
Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing. 2011, p. 80. Since then, funding for PNWER has been balanced by the public and private sector. The organization's current (2010) annual budget is U.S. $1.4 million, with approximately one third coming from state and provincial dues, one third from private sector sponsorship and dues, and one third from public and private grants.

References

External links

The Pacific Northwest Economic Region
Economy of British Columbia Economy of Alberta Economy of Yukon Economy of Washington (state) Economy of Oregon Economy of Idaho Economy of Montana Economy of Alaska Economy of the Northwest Territories Environment of Canada Environment of the United States Canada–United States relations Trade blocs Regionalism (international relations) Economic regions 1991 establishments in Montana Paradiplomacy