What Is Atlantica? Click Here for More Information. Cianbro Corporation

14 September 2007 * Vol. 3, Issue 4

What is Atlantica? Click here for more information. ______

¾ Cianbro Corporation proposes East-West toll road through Maine ¾ Defining Atlantica: Bridges to Prosperity ¾ Access Atlantica website promotes the Bangor-Saint John Trade and Growth Corridor ¾ Reaching Out: Transload extends the accessible market in Halifax. ¾ APCC appoints Atlantica Vice President ¾ Everybody Wins: Why Growing the Port of Halifax matters to Moncton (…and Saint John, Amherst, Bangor…) ¾ NorthEast CanAm Connections: Integrating the economy and transportation ______Cianbro Corporation proposes East – West toll road through Maine

Privately held company Cianbro Corp. has unveiled a plan to build a new toll highway across the state of Maine. The highway would stretch from the Canadian border in Calais to Coburn Grove. The highway represents a major investment in the infrastructure of the Atlantica economic zone.

The road would reduce travel time, costs and fuel emissions for over 1,000 heavy vehicles currently prohibited from using the interstate.

To read the related article in the Kennebec Journal, click here. To read the related article in the Bangor Daily News, click here. To read the related article in the Telegraph-Journal, click here. ______

Defining Atlantica: Bridges to Prosperity

While protestors demonstrated outside and complained that their voice was not being heard inside the conference, AIMS acting President Charles Cirtwill was debating Atlantica with one of the chief opponents of the concept, Scott Sinclair. The occasion was Atlantica 2007; Charting the Course, the second annual Atlantica conference organized by the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce (APCC). Cirtwill explained that Atlantica is not a free trade zone, it is not about eliminating the minimum wage or unions.

"Atlantica is about people with common needs – in a common neighbourhood – coming up with common solutions," he said. "The phrase "help yourself by helping others" comes to mind."

This particular debate received extensive coverage, including this article in New Brunswick’s Telegraph-Journal.

To read Defining Atlantica, the AIMS’ Commentary based on Cirtwill’s remarks to the conference, click here.

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Access Atlantica website promotes the Bangor-Saint John Trade and Growth Corridor

The Bangor-Saint John Trade & Growth Corridor is located in the heart of the economic zone known as Atlantica. This international collaboration unites the resources and expertise of more than a dozen communities and a host of local, regional and federal economic development agencies with the common aim of making the region even more economically dynamic.

Home to a population base of more than 400,000, this project involves mapping the key economic assets in the region spanning from Sussex, New Brunswick to Bar Harbor, Maine. The Access Atlantica website includes such information as demographics of the region, development agencies, municipalities and infrastructure.

The Bangor-Saint John Trade & Growth Corridor economic asset map builds on and compliments the wealth of information found in the Halifax Moncton Growth Corridor. With the latter's 600,000 population base, the combination of both corridors results in a market of one million individuals, which is extended by its international import and exports activities.

To view the Economic Assets Map, click here.

To visit Access Atlantica’s website, click here.

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Reaching Out: Transload extends the accessible market in Halifax

In this third paper of the AIMS Atlantica Ports Series, authors Jim Frost and Stephen Kymlicka examine what needs to be done to grow port traffic by increasing transload facilities. Reaching Out: Transload extends the accessible market in Halifax, takes an in-depth look at the state of warehousing and distribution in Halifax. It then discusses the strengths and weaknesses of a generic transload strategy and the potential application of such a strategy to the conditions in Halifax.

Frost and Kymlicka conclude that transload strategy makes a great deal of sense for Halifax.

"In fact, the potential growth could be 25 per cent; however, the exact size of the opportunity will depend on individual market forces across a broad range of industries," say the authors.

To read the complete paper, click here.

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Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce appoints Atlantica Vice President

Just a month after its successful Atlantica conference in Halifax, the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce (APCC) is showing it is doing more than just talking about Atlantica.

The APCC hired a full-time Vice President for the Atlantica file. Brent Sansom brings a wealth of experience to the role. To read the news release announcing his appointment, click here.

In this interview in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Sansom explains Atlantica and his new role. To read the complete interview, click here.

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Everybody Wins: Why Growing the Port of Halifax Matters to Moncton ( . . .and Saint John, Amherst, Bangor . . )

Everybody Wins provides an in-depth case study on the Port of Halifax as a regional "cluster" within Atlantica. Kymlicka and de Langen analyze the structure of the Halifax cluster and examine associated port-led industry to draw several conclusions. Notably; the cluster is strong enough to attract investment from world- class firms, such large investments usually trigger increased traffic, investment in warehousing and distribution could result from improved corridor access, and transload facility expansion will make more containers available to local exporters thereby strengthening the regional role of the port.

These findings bode well for regional development opportunities in other cities within Atlantica. Kymlicka and de Langen show that analysis of port-led economic activity confined strictly to the Halifax geographic area leaves significant gaps when measured against other Canadian ports with similar shipping volumes. But when expanded to a regional level the supporting industries that benefit from the port generate substantial economic activity in smaller hubs outside.

To read the complete paper, click here.

______NorthEast CanAm Connections: Integrating the Economy and Transportation

CanAm Connections: Integrating the Economy and Transportation is the title for a study originally called the Northeast Border Corridor Transportation and Economic Development Study. This study examines the relationship between sufficiency of transportation and economic conditions across the region of central Maine and the northern tier of New Hampshire, Vermont and New York State, as well as along the adjacent Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. The initial phase of the study surveyed key issues and developed a Scope of Work for the study. The second phase, now underway, is assessing economic development and transportation conditions and opportunities for improvement.

To read the interim report of NorthEast CanAm Connnections, click here.

What is Atlantica?

Atlantica: the International Northeast Economic Region (AINER) is defined chiefly by geography, economic trends and trade patterns; common problems and experiences; and politics. Much of this wedge of territory has been outside the charmed circle of North American prosperity for years.

The reasons are buried deep in our history. Especially after the Americans rejected Reciprocity and Confederation was born, the continent was divided into two national projects. Each sought to open up its half of the continent on an east-west axis. Each had a funnel on the East Coast (Montreal and New York respectively) that caught the energies of Europe and channelled them toward the conquest of the continent. Atlantica was bypassed.

But now, continental free trade and globalization could put an end to the isolation of Atlantica. The east-west axis for development of North America is being supplemented by a drive to stitch back together the old north-south trade routes that had flourished across the continent before 1867.

To learn more, visit www.atlantica.org or www.aims.ca . ______

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