Posts Tagged ‘Regulatory Cooperation Council’

December 20, 2011: Ottawa

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Monday of last week was my first day back in the office after the announcement by the President and the Prime Minister of the Action Plans for Beyond the Border and the Regulatory Cooperation Council. (I left Washington on Wednesday night and spent Thursday and Friday in Toronto with the press — which is probably worth its own blog.)

One of the things we promised in the action plans is to consult, both formally and informally, with interested stakeholders to get their input on what is in the plans and on our progress in implementing them.

We started last week. The two architects of Beyond the Border and Regulatory Cooperation on the Canadian side, Simon Kennedy and Bob Hamilton, and I had a chance to meet with about 30 members of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce at a lunch arranged by Perrin Beatty, the CEO of the Chamber.

We received a great deal of useful feedback. I also found it interesting that Simon, Bob and I all expressed the same view to the group. What we did last Wednesday was to announce plans. While we believe they are excellent roadmaps to lead us to where the Prime Minister and the President want us to go — more trade, thinner borders and a more secure North America — we will only achieve those goals if we get to work and execute. Each of us encouraged the members of the Chamber — and all other interested stakeholders in Canada and the United States — to hold us accountable for results and to hold our feet to the fire in the coming months and years.

In addition to informal events like our lunch last week, we also have more formal processes for collecting input. On the U.S. side, we published a Federal Register Notice on the process inviting interested parties to comment on the Beyond the Border Action Plan. You may submit comments, identified by docket number DHS-2011-0115, through the Federal eRulemaking Portal, by email (BeyondtheBorder@hq.dhs.gov), or by mail (Beyond the Border Coordinator, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Mailstop 0455, Washington, DC 20016).

The U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council is planning to hold the first RCC Meeting, with stakeholders from both sides of the border, in late January in Washington D.C. The individual RCC working groups will also hold stakeholder meetings to seek input as they draft their work plans.

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Posted in December 2011 |

March 4, 2011: Ottawa

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Hard to believe that a month has passed since the Friday afternoon when I was at the White House watching President Obama and Prime Minister Harper discuss their shared vision for our future.
 
They are taking our relationship to the next level of cooperation.  And they have tasked all of us to make recommendations and to come up with an action plan. It’s a big job.  But it is achievable.  To make it happen we are going to need help.  Not just  from people who work for the government, but from the people we work for – the citizens of the United States and Canada.
 
I’m happy to see that the conversation is underway in the public space. Just today I read what Canada West Foundation Senior Economist Michael Holden had to say about the new Regulatory Cooperation Council. One thing in particular I took away — Michael wants to see the new Regulatory Cooperation Council progress from talk to results.  I can relate to that.  President Obama wants to see results too. He and the Prime Minister have charged us to develop an action plan on how to reduce the regulatory burden which can sometimes impede trade between our two countries.
 
Today there was notice published in the United States Federal Register soliciting for input to help identify potential sectors in which the U.S. government can work to reduce regulatory burdens and improve competitiveness.
 
In our country, we use the Federal Register as our mechanism for gathering public comment.  In this case in particular, it’s really important to hear from the people most affected to see what they identify which might be standing in their way.
 
We want consumers, workers, industry and business people, entrepreneurs — people from across both countries — to participate and to advise us on how we can do better. And we want to hear from people quickly so we can get the ball rolling.  That’s why the announcement has a 30 day comment period. A word of advance warning, sorry that the notice is written in “bureaucrat-ese.” But we are, after all the government!!!
 
Please take a look at this announcement, and pass it along. We welcome Canadian voices.  We’re looking forward to hearing from you.  This is your chance to tell us where to focus our efforts.
 
It’s easy to submit a comment – just go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for docket number ITA-2011-0003-0001. The deadline for comments is April 4, 2011.
 
DJ

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Posted in March 2011 |