BAR HARBOR, Maine — Old east coast joke:

"What’s the definition of a Nova Scotian?"

A Newfoundlander who went broke on his way to Boston."

The point? Everybody knows Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have more in common with Maine than they do with southern Ontario or Saskatchewan.

The east coast cultures and industries of Canada and the U.S. are more closely related than Ozark newlyweds.

So, isn’t it high time they did something about it and exploited their commonalities to create jobs and prosper? A high-powered influential group of politicians and local business people think it’s a whale of an idea.

And that’s why you’re bound to hear a lot more out of something called the “Northeast CanAm Connection” study group, which recently released the results of a multi-year examination of the area’s economy and came up with a proposal that could see the creation of up to 100,000 new jobs in the region between now and 2025.

The report was presented at the 32nd annual conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers.

Atlantic leaders say region has to ‘step up
game’ on Atlantica trade concept

Project one, recommended by the report: An east-west highway running from the border town of Calais, Me., to Coburn Gore, which is just south of Sherbrooke, Quebec.

According to a report in the Telegraph Journal, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams voiced loud support for the project, saying “I think we need to step up our game on this. This is truly a vision piece that truly goes beyond any of our terms of office.”

As David Cole, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation said during a presentation to Atlantic premiers: “the broad region’s economic future is largely intertwined with the adequacy of our transportation links between our states and provinces."

He said the Northeast region is also ideally poised for trade with Europe and with Asia via the Suez canal trade except that it’s lacking a 21st century infrastructure such as high-capacity highways, bridges and easy border crossing.

This, loosely based on the similarly hyped ‘Atlantica concept’ could mean a radical change in how trucking is done in this part of the two countries if acted upon.

Organizers agreed that if the region works together and encourages growth through things like private-sector investment, there is the potential to create up to 100,000 new jobs in the area.

In the meantime, Newfoundland Premier Williams got a resolution from his fellow premiers and governors to have their respective transportation agencies work on developing a way to study the benefits, costs and impacts of increasing truck weight limits.