Canada and the U.S. share cross-border policy interests, including security, travel and tourism. Despite a more challenging landscape following Sept. 11, for two countries sharing the world's largest bilateral trade relationship, findings ways to continue to facilitate regional economic integration remains important. Surface transportation gateways offer considerable opportunities to address broader policy concerns.

Cross-border trade and tourism are a critical part of the Cascadia region, and cross-border issues, for example, have a very real impact on those living in the Northwest. Indeed, for the Cascadia region, it is critical to pursue U.S.-Canadian border improvements and to continue to examine ways to facilitate tourism initiatives between Washington and British Columbia, such as the concept of the "Two-Nation Vacation."

Functioning, seamless gateways within the Northwest are critical to successfully transporting people and goods as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver, B.C. The Olympics are the latest (and likely the most prominent) example that will offer the Cascadia region on both sides of the border an opportunity to demonstrate its unique, integrated approach to innovation, best practices and lessons learned in building a more sustainable region.

Cascadia Commons

A public education effort at the Olympics and called The Cascadia Commons will be an interactive, entertainment and educational destination for visitors and media. The site (consisting in part of highly visual and interactive public education exhibits) is designed to educate and inform, with a particular focus on the near future vision of more sustainable, smarter and greener cities, new transportation technologies, improvements in energy efficiency, enhanced economic competitiveness and sustainable tourism solutions.

The Cascadia Commons, the brainchild of a consortium of organizations from Oregon to Vancouver, B.C., implicitly represents how the region is connected. Importantly, it also demonstrates how functional, seamless gateways - despite being part of a broader policy debate that navigates complex bilateral and strategic concerns - facilitate regional cohesion.