March 07, 2016

Trudeau visit to White House raises Washington state's hopes for water, border agreements

WASHINGTON – As President Barack Obama prepares to host Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a state visit on Thursday, Washington state’s leaders in Congress have been busy preparing their wish lists.

Trudeau, the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, is new on the job, having been sworn in on Nov. 4. His election ended nearly a decade of conservative-dominated politics, and his visit to Washington will be the first by a Canadian leader in two decades.

For Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse and Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer, hopes run high that Trudeau’s visit will kick-start the long-stalled Columbia River Treaty, which governs how the two nations divide the water supply from the 1,243-mile-long river, the longest in the Pacific Northwest.

The state’s two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, want to make it easier to go through border crossings into Canada by expanding preclearance operations, allowing more people to pass through customs inspections before they travel.

And the White House has its own priorities, with climate change, energy, security and economic issues among them.

Shortly after Trudeau’s election, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration was particularly optimistic that the new prime minister would cooperate on climate change, noting that Trudeau had focused on the issue in his campaign and that Obama “certainly would welcome the opportunity to cooperate on that priority.”

That could be good news for backers of the Columbia River Treaty, an agreement that created a vast system of dams for flood control and electricity for the Northwest.

President Dwight Eisenhower signed the treaty with Canada as one of his last official acts in January 1961, when global warming was not a public concern. But now scientists predict that rising temperatures will continue to reduce the snowpack and glacier mass in mountains, resulting in less water during seasonal runoffs.

State officials fear the changes will mean fewer fish and damage the river’s ability to feed the turbines that have produced billions of dollars’ worth of hydropower for both Canada and the United States.

Members of Congress from Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Montana have been pushing the Obama administration for the past two years to wrap up a renegotiated treaty, without success. That includes Cantwell, Murray and the entire Idaho delegation: Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch and Republican Reps. Mike Simpson and Raul Labrador.

“It has been a little frustrating because this is a very important treaty for our region of the country,” Newhouse said.

Last month, Newhouse met with Brian Doherty, the State Department’s lead negotiator, who was just assigned to the case late last year. Newhouse described him as “a very capable individual” but said he’s only getting started, putting a team in place and familiarizing himself with the issues.

“The meetings with Canadians are very preliminary at this point, so the real meaningful negotiations haven’t begun,” Newhouse said. “It was very frustrating that the administration had not seen fit to engage in the process, but at least now we can say things have started.”

On Tuesday, Cantwell and Murray introduced a bill that would expand pre-clearance operations at border stops between Canada and the U.S. And the senators said they expect the issue to be discussed when Trudeau comes to Washington.

Cantwell, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said speeding up border crossings would help both travelers and Washington state’s economy, making it easier to move the state’s products, everything from fish to fruit to technology.

In Washington state, trade with Canada results in more than $25 billion in business each year, accounting for more than 223,000 jobs, according to Cantwell. Canada now ranks as the top export destination for 35 states.

Canada and Washington state have something else in common, too: Trudeau has promised to legalize recreational marijuana nationwide, following the lead of Washington state, Colorado, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C.

But that is one issue that is not on Thursday’s agenda.


By:  Rob Hotakainen
Source: Orange County Register