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 Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, the

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

, the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

along with the American states of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, and

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

and

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy 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 private sector employs most of the workfo ...

. The Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) serves as a cross-border forum for both public and private sectors, facilitating open dialogue. This forum leverages the collaborative efforts between business leaders and elected officials with the aim of enhancing the region's global competitiveness. Former BC cabinet minister and legal scholar

Andrew Petter Andrew J. Petter (born 1953) is a former academic and provincial politician in British Columbia, Canada. He represented the Electoral district (Canada), electoral district of Saanich South in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 19 ...

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 practices, from town twinning to transnational 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, and 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, 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 United States interstate compacts