A good many Western New Yorkers have looked at Ralph Wilson as the anti-Christ ever since he turned the Buffalo Bills into a part-time resident of the City of Toronto.
Their assessment is quite unfortunate because Ralph Wilson is a genius for that pursuit and we need every man, woman and child to follow in his footsteps. The merging of the Niagara-Buffalo region, economically and socially, with Southern Ontario is without a doubt the most important thing that we can do to achieve the best possible future for Western New Yrok.
It’s not a stretch to say that most people in the area tend to look at Canada as a strange, faraway land and that our world seemingly ends at the Niagara River. It’s almost as if we chose to ignore that Ontario is in our backyard and, oddly enough, believe that Rochester or Erie, Pa. — both of which are farther away than the greater Toronto area — are more appropriate parts of our lives. Those blinders, based in either ethnocentrism or a misguided fear of the unknown, need to be cast aside.
The area from the border to just past Toronto is aptly named “the Golden Horseshoe,” a C-shaped territory along Lake Ontario that comprises some of North America’s greatest riches. It is home to 8.1 million residents and the Canadian headquarters of the world’s largest corporations. To put that into perspective, Niagara and Erie counties, the most populous of Western New York, are home to only 1.25 million people and a depressed economy that is but a shell of its former self.
Were we to open our eyes, our minds and our borders to our friends to the North, we’d be able to capitalize on their sizable economy and its potential for growth (the Golden Horseshoe’s population is expected to expand by 40 percent over the next two decades) by manufacturing the products and providing the professional and high-tech services they need. But, at this time, it’s easier said than done.
For starters, the border offers a significant hurdle. In the name of national security both nations have tightened up their vetting process at the gates, slowing traffic to a crawl and accounting for waits at the bridges that typically exceed one half-hour for passenger cars and are considerably longer for tractor trailers. That’s a ridiculous amount of time when one considers that Toronto is only an hour away from the Rainbow Bridge. Few businessmen, workers or customers possess enough patience to deal with such delays on a regular basis. It’s virtually impossible to plan your day around it as you may get through the border in five minutes or 50 of them.
In order to promote the easy cross-border movement of people and products, both governments must fully man each crossing and expedite the screening process. The Canadian government, especially, must find ways to temper the insane number of strikes/slowdowns that their border agents go on.
Secondly, businesses need an effective means by which to network and connect with one another. Many Canadian and American companies have a hard time figuring out how to crack the market and do business on the other side of the river. I’ll admit, even I have found it extremely difficult to properly market Confer Plastics to companies in the GTA. What companies like mine and countless others need are the local chambers of commerce and their Canadian counterparts to focus on what their name implies: commerce.
They sometimes host mixers and networking events for smaller companies in their own communities. What they don’t offer are similar events on a larger scale for their bigger clients; US-Canadian matchmaking events that would connect a manufacturer in Medina with another one in Hamilton or a software firm in Mississauga with, say, a hospital in Buffalo that could use its services. Basically, local business groups and their member companies need to think less parochially and work together to address a macroeconomic need.
There are some people — visionaries if you will — who see the importance of greater trade with the GTA. You might choose to not listen to the Buffalo Bills front office since football teams are so “sacred.” But, if you ever get a chance to catch a speech about bi-national trade from Ken Franasiask of Calamar, you’ll be really impressed about what the larger WNY/GTA region is and could be.
It’s time that others followed that vision and extended the Golden Horseshoe past the Niagara River, taking it to Rochester and beyond. There’s no reason why the GTA’s prosperity shouldn’t rub off on us.
Bob Confer
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COLUMN: Super-regionalism: WNY and the GTA
- Bob Confer
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CONFER: Time to end the NFL’s blackout rule
Long ago, in a much simpler time, ticket sales accounted for the majority of revenues for professional football teams.
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CONFER: Federal spending derailed by Amtrak
We’ve been inundated with news reports about the fiscal woes of the U.S. Postal Service. Why is it that we never hear anything about another federal enterprise facing ongoing losses -- Amtrak?
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CONFER: Sifting through the hydrofracking propaganda
Hydrofracking ranks among the most contentious issues in New York. For each person clamoring for the jobs and economic development it will bring to the Empire State, there’s another who strongly opposes the method of natural gas extraction for its potential to damage the environment.
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CONFER: Unexpected sights in the wilds of Niagara
In recent years, local residents have had the chance to witness some interesting animals within our borders. Among those that generated the most press and most talk were the black bears that frequented the area for a couple of months.
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CONFER: On 911, Upstate, payroll taxes
Congresswoman Kathy Hochul’s ALERT ACT has been welcomed with open arms by many people in her district, including my friend Scott Leffler who addressed it in his column last week. He supports the Act in entirety. I, on the other hand, can’t do the same.
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CONFER: Presenting an alternative to war
Last week I was the guest on Don Griffin’s “Second Opinion” on KJSL in St. Louis. The topic of discussion was a 2009 column I wrote about a part of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal.
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CONFER: Wage Theft Act: More paperwork for businesses
Business owners and managers like to spend their time doing productive things that make them, their company, their co-workers and their clients better.
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CONFER: Libya is no better off — maybe its worse
All of the major news outlets, and therefore most U.S. citizens, were downright giddy over the uprising — and NATO intervention — in Libya. Thinking it was some sort of feel-good story, an extension of the Arab Spring, they reveled in the toppling of Gadhafi and threw unyielding support behind the rebel forces.
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CONFER: Government encroaching on parental rights
Once the government has its foot in the door through the federally sponsored Home Visiting Program, it will have carte blanche to manage all facets of child care.
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Time to occupy Ralph Wilson Stadium
Most Americans can identify, in part, with the ideals of the Occupy Wall Street movement. What probably resonates most with the majority, regardless of “right” or “left” tendencies, is the basic concept that our government should not be in the business of business.
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