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Regional institute releases findings of cross-border study
By RACHEL M. TEAMAN
Reporter Contributor
Thousands of Southern Ontarians cross into Western New York to attend local colleges, visit hospitals, use the airport and attend sporting events. Western New Yorkers head to Ontario for recreation, to visit vacation homes and to provide banking and legal services to Ontario businesses.
And this is only a fraction of the border's 15 million annual crossings for personal travel. Additionally, $75 billion in commodities traversed the Niagara River in 2006, making this border crossing the second busiest in volume along the U.S-Canada boundary.
These are among the findings unveiled recently by the UB Regional Institute at a briefing for its "Region's Edge" research initiative, which seeks to build understanding of the scope and significance of the cross-border network encompassing the Western New York-Southern Ontario region. Nearly 100 binational regional leaders from the public, private, nonprofit and academic sectors attended a briefing on the North Campus.
"Our preliminary findings tell a striking story about how residents, businesses and institutions on both sides of the border interact," said Kathryn Bryk Friedman, institute deputy director and Region's Edge project director. "It's a story of interdependency and opportunity—for economic development, border security and governance, among other critical international issues."
For example, the Western New York-Southern Ontario border is a linchpin of the integrated North American supply chain that sends goods across the border to the entire eastern half of the United States.
"We have tremendous opportunity from a trade perspective to move forward," said Patrick J. Whalen, trade consultant for the World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara, who sat on a panel at the briefing to discuss the institute's findings with the audience. Motor vehicles and parts, energy products, pharmaceuticals, metals and media (books, magazines, DVDs, etc.) are among the top commodities crossing the Niagara River.
At the regional scale, the scope of foreign direct investment across the border sheds light on a diverse cross-border economy. In 2006-07, 168 parent firms in Southern Ontario invested in Western New York through subsidiary firms, warehouses and shares of local firms. For the same period, 28 Western New York parent firms invested in Southern Ontario. This activity supported more than 4,000 jobs in the binational region.
Between 2000 and 2005, more than 1,000 Southern Ontarians visited Western New York hospitals, with patient charges exceeding $20 million. Several Western New York higher education institutions have significant Canadian enrollment—in 2006-07, 40 percent of D'Youville College's student body was Canadian, with 23 percent for Medaille College and 15 percent for Niagara University and Daemen College. And at Buffalo Bills home games, up to 21 percent of the crowd is from Canada.
Meanwhile, Western New Yorkers own more than 1,700 beachfront properties in Fort Erie, with a total assessed value approaching $280 million (CDN). Western New York professionals cross into Southern Ontario to provide legal, accounting and banking services to Southern Ontario clients making American investments.
Robert Gabriel, regional councilor for the Regional Municipality of Niagara, also a member of the briefing's panel, said it is critical that the region be seen—and marketed—as a binational region.
For instance, the Greater Toronto Area is expected to grow by 4 million people in the next 25 years—a demographic statistic that should be promoted by Western New York leaders to attract and retain businesses. And the tremendous cultural assets of Western New York, especially in Buffalo, are just as valuable to Southern Ontarians. "They belong to all of us," he said.
Added Friedman: "The tangible benefits of working together as a binational region are clearly evident. The question now is: 'How can we use these data to inform policy decisions and tap opportunities for increased collaboration and integration?'"
Participants at the briefing deliberated on the implications of the institute's findings and provided insight on critical next steps, including the need for increased political cooperation and a binational governance structure, as well as more information on cross-border investment activity and economic interdependencies.
"As we move into the globalized world of the 21st century, a powerful competitive advantage lies in transcending our international boundary and building our identity as a binational region," Friedman said, adding that this region already has a strong position as the most populous of the four urban regions along the U.S.-Canada border, with the two metropolitan centers of Buffalo and Toronto fewer than 100 miles apart.
The Regional Institute plays a vital role in addressing governance and quality-of-life issues in the Buffalo-Niagara region. A major research and public-service unit of UB and a unit of the UB Law School, the institute leverages the resources of the university and binational community to pursue a wide range of scholarship, projects and initiatives that inform regional challenges.