‘Montreal’s US suburb’ is trying to save its cross-border relationship

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Plattsburgh, N.Y., sits near the border between the United States and Canada, about an hour’s drive north lies Montreal. The two cities are so close to each other that a strong bond has formed over years of trade and cross-border business.

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Some even refer to Plattsburgh as “Montreal’s U.S. suburb.” Now, this cross-border partnership is at risk, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods. It’s the first time there’s been such a threat.

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Garry Douglas has been the president and CEO of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, serving the state of New York, for 32 years. Asked if there had been any significant disputes or tension between the two cities over the years. He simply replied, “No, nice and simple. The answer is no.”

National Post spoke with Douglas about the relationship between Plattsburgh and Montreal, the U.S. threatening tariffs against Canada, and how the two cities could be affected.

You refer to Plattsburgh as Montreal’s U.S. suburb. Why is that?

Well, it’s a suburb in almost every way that a suburb for any metro city would be. We squarely decided strategically to put ourselves in a very singular business about 30 years ago. We are in the Quebec business. We are in the business of facilitating and assisting in the success of Quebec and its business community in the U.S. market in every way imaginable.

We directly host almost 100 physical locations of Canadian, primarily Quebec-based, companies in our region. We estimate that 20 per cent of the workforce in the Plattsburgh area gets up every day and goes to work for a Canadian or border-related employer on this side of the border.

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Sometimes, I’ll be speaking to a colleague from Texas or Kansas, and in describing to them where Plattsburgh is, I’ll say, “It’s one hour south of downtown Montreal.” to which they say, “You must spend a lot of time helping your companies do business in Canada.” To which I respond, “We never waste time doing that, we go up proactively into Quebec and help Quebec companies export into the U.S.”

What is the relationship like between Plattsburgh and Montreal?

There’s an especially deep and abiding relationship between the people of the Montreal region and the people of the Plattsburgh area that goes back many generations. If you were to look in a Plattsburgh phonebook, you’d find a high degree of French surnames, reflecting the fact that the Plattsburgh area was largely settled in years past from people moving across the border from Quebec, as opposed to coming in from New York or Boston or other places.

Another example that shows just how strong the connection is, is that the pandemic shut down the border for almost two years in terms of restrictions on our Canadian friends coming into the U.S. When those restrictions went away in 2021, most other U.S. border regions went back to 50 or 60 per cent pre-pandemic visitation rate. We immediately went back to 90 per cent, which shows how anxious Quebecers were to come back to Plattsburgh and how strong that connection is.

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There is not another border community with as strong and broad a connection with a neighbouring Canadian city as Plattsburgh has.

It’s not just a business relationship, and it’s not just a tourism relationship, although both are very large. There really is a sense that we are part of metropolitan Montreal and Montrealers often think of us as not the same as going elsewhere in the U.S., but being that appendage to Montreal that happens to be on the U.S. side of the border.

What industries benefit the most from this cross-border relationship?

We have a very diverse manufacturing community that benefits in both directions. Both those that are Canadian based, servicing growth in the U.S. market by having a subsidiary operation on this side of the border, but also many of our U.S. manufacturers that are in northern New York (State) source raw materials and components from Quebec.

I can’t name companies, because I don’t want to reveal facts about their specific businesses, but we have a major paper manufacturer, for example, that sources all of its pulp wood from Canada. 100 per cent of northern New York’s asphalt and cement comes from Quebec. Our gasoline and our heating oil is trucked down from the port of Montreal. All of these cross-border business connections that are very much what you would expect to see without a border, if we were just talking about being a suburb of Montreal.

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What is at risk with Trump threatening tariffs and annexation?

Well, when you’re defining yourself as a U.S. suburb and being in the Quebec business, it is extremely troubling. We say this all the time, “Anything good for Quebec is good for us, anything bad for Quebec is bad for us.” Any tariffs on Canadian goods of any kind are bad for Quebec and therefore bad for us. We have a number of direct impacts and I’m taking great pains to point out to people that here on the U.S. side of the border, I think we’re a good microcosm of what the real impacts would be.

With dozens of manufacturers we have, many are impacted by supply chain connections with neighbouring Quebec. We have two major manufacturers, who I can’t name, but were planning significant expansions this year. They put it on hold because of the uncertainty of the cost of raw materials and supply chains.

We’re making things together

The impacts are already in place, even if tariffs aren’t eventually applied, which we hope they aren’t. Companies are actively stockpiling to hedge against potential impacts of costs on raw materials, but stockpiling costs money and is a cost-ineffective way to do business. Construction jobs in northern New York are currently assuming, because we are so dependent on Quebec building materials, are having to assume that there will be tariffs and are building that into their cost estimates.

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The sooner we get this behind us, the better for us, the better for Canada, the better for everybody.

Do you have any possible solutions?

As somebody who has been working with business for more than three decades, business will always find a way to do business, whether in the face of disasters, the face of pandemics, or border operations or even in the face of tariffs. That isn’t to say that there wouldn’t be great economic damage done, because there would be. The U.S. and Canada are the two largest and most integrated economies in the world. We don’t trade with each other. We don’t use the word trade in North Country Chamber when referring to Canada. We suggest that the U.S. and Canada are actually in a post-trade relationship of economic integration. We’re making things together.

So if you have a negative impact on one country, it affects both. That’s not understood in Washington, however, because you don’t have to go much more than 50 miles away from the border in the U.S. to find an almost non-existence of understanding about the U.S.-Canadian relationship.

Is there anything you would like to add?

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We’re very distressed with this whole notion of applying tariffs on Canada in any way, and pleased when they get postponed. But even a postponement carries negativities and uncertainties that cause damage. This latest situation of having said on one day that there’ll be a postponement and then the next day that there isn’t causes deep uncertainty and distress in both business communities, and that’s just not good for anybody. We need Washington to understand that. We need to get this behind us.

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