Atlantic Canadian companies looking for business opportunities in New England couldn't have chosen a better time to be here, according to a senior economist and vice-president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank.
Yolanda Kodrzycki attended a breakfast meeting in Boston this morning and briefed Team Atlantic delegates on the climate of the New England economy.
"This is an excellent time to sell into the New England market," Ms. Kodrzycki told the delegation. "This is a very good time to be seeking joint venture opportunities with New England companies."
Team Atlantic is a four-day trade delegation representing the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. The purpose of the trade mission is to establish new business partnerships, increase trade and investment, and build strategic alliances between businesses in Atlantic Canada and companies located in the New England region.
Delegates arrived in Boston last night, and will travel Burlington, Vermont; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Portland, Maine in the coming days.
Team Atlantic is an initiative of the Conference of Atlantic Premiers and is being funded by the Canada/Atlantic Provinces COOPERATION Agreement on International Business Development, a pan-Atlantic trade agreement between the federal government - represented by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Industry Canada - and the four provincial governments.
Ms. Kodrzycki said the New England market is ripe for the Atlantic Canadian companies to forge partnerships. She described a recession suffered by the region in the early 1990s, a recession that had a devastating impact on the area economy. The initial recovery was tentative, but less than a decade later the region's economy is once again booming.
"As we enter 1999, conditions could not be more different. Our region is in terrific shape. Our economy has come roaring back," she said. The unemployment rate has dropped and there is a great deal of confidence in the area economy, which is growing steadily.
"This really is a region that is doing quite well," she said. The region's unemployment rate currently sits at 3.1 per cent, a low it has reached only twice before - at the height of the 1980s economic boom, and during the Vietnam War. In fact, some employers are having difficulty in finding qualified workers to fill new jobs as their companies expand, since New England's economy has grown faster than its labour force.
Following the breakfast meeting, the Team Atlantic delegates began the first of several matchmaking sessions with New England companies. Tonight the delegation will attend a dinner with guest speaker, noted international business leader Sir Graham Day.