Russell, Graham Work to Strengthen North Country-Ontario Ties



by Timothy W. Scee II
Special to Newzjunky.com
Published January 22, 2011

KINGSTON, ONT.  —  What began as a close friendship years ago, between an American political aid and a Canadian attorney, developed into the first of what is expected to be a series of discussions between two municipal governments of both countries.  

On Friday, officials from the cities of Kingston and Watertown met at Kingston’s City Hall, 216 Ontario St., to discuss topics ranging from commerce to border security and how to facilitate them.  

“This discussion today is more about community-community in the sense that the prime question is, if we have better relations at a community level, will that trigger other things including economic development,” Allan McLeod, Kingston’s senior counsel said. “So we’re not primarily talking about business, but we’re talking about what is the groundwork that we need to lay to improve how we serve each other and how we might do things together.”

Friday’s meeting, organized by Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, included her Chief of Staff Mark A. Pacilio, who first met McLeod during an old-time baseball game at Sackets Harbor’s Can-Am Festival.  

One of the options discussed was holding memorial services in Sackets Harbor for Canadian soldiers killed during the War of 1812, while also remembering those Americans who were lost in a ceremony at Fort Henry in Kingston.  

“This idea of having an 1812 memorial on each side fulfills not only the tourism interest, but the cultural identity interest,” McLeod said.  

“It would be ideal if we could get something along these lines with the memorials, or further back, the 1812 celebrations together, to a point where we could potentially make an announcement in August when the U.S. Marines are up at the fort, doing a joint performance,” Bryan J. Mercer, directory of marketing for the Fort Henry National Historic Site, added. 

Pacilio mentioned Russell is working on a bill that would reinstate the 1812 Commemorative Committee, created in 2009 by Sen. Darrell J. Aubertine and vetoed by Gov. David A. Paterson later that year.  

Moving onto tourism, McLeod asked how much of an impact Canadians are making in the American economy, particularly Watertown’s commerce.  

“When we’re in stores, there’s folks shopping and you just sort of knew half the folks in the store are from Ontario,” Pacilio said. “If you go and take a look at the parking lots down there you’ll see a good number of cars with Ontario plates.” 

McLeod said Kingston also sees its share of American visitors, also judging by license plates. The counsel assumed many visitors were military members, as plates are often from several different states. 

Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham, however, said there is no possible way to financially measure the impact of Canadian tourism in Watertown but there are other ways to tell it may affect the local economy.  

“It’s impossible to break it down that way, but I can tell you that our sales tax revenue in Watertown for the first half of our fiscal year is running $600,000 above what we anticipated and this is in a recessionary climate in the U.S.,” he said. 

Graham added, “That’s an indication to me that, at least the anecdotal account of Canadians coming over because of the exchange rate are true and I think it’s important that people of the North Country welcome them with open arms, don’t try to discount them money or anything like that, just be grateful that we’ve got an influx of business that’s helping to soften the impact of the recession until some of the aspects of our economy get going again.” 












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