|
Like Alaska, Western Canada is blessed with a plentiful supply of minerals, timber, oil and natural gas. Alaska and
Canada both cooperate and compete with each other, while facing the common logistics challenges of bringing resources
from the north to larger population centers in the lower 48 states.
Alaska made encouraging progress on the natural gas pipeline through Canada in 2003. This project has the potential to
make the largest positive impact on the Alaskan economy in the last 30 years. 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas
reserves are known to be stranded in the northern region of Alaska. Over 100 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas is
estimated to exist in the area.
The discussion about options for construction of the gas line has also reinvigorated a project to extend the Alaska
railroad east from Fairbanks to connect it to the Canadian rail system and on to the rest of North America. There are
enormous cost savings that can be realized if this project is advanced concurrently with the gas line and
telecommunications fiber optics connections.
Canadian import of Alaskan products rose significantly in 2003, up $76 million, a 49% increase in volume. Alaska
exported $231 million in products to Canada in 2003 alone.
Minerals account for nearly half of our exports to Canada, $87 million in zinc and $24 million in lead. The minerals
are mainly from the Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue, which provides one out of every seven jobs in northwest Alaska.
Seafood exports to Canada were strong in 2003, increasing by $15 million, up 30% over the previous year. The products
primarily responsible for that increase were halibut, salmon and cod.
In a promising sign of future expansion of our cooperative trade relationship, Canada has established a
Consular office in Anchorage in the fall of 2004.
|