The Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) serves as a cross-border forum for both public and private sectors, facilitating open dialogue.
[1] Former BC cabinet minister and legal scholar Andrew Petter describes the PNWER as one of North Americas most sophisticated examples of regionalist paradiplomacy.
The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region was established in 1991 by statute in the organization's original seven legislative jurisdictions – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska in the United States, and British Columbia and Alberta in Canada.
Six working groups were established, including environmental technology, tourism, recycling, value-added timber, workforce training, and telecommunications; some of these merged into or were replaced in later years by new areas of concentration.
Critical in establishing the initiative to create the PNWER were Washington State Senator Alan Bluechel and Deputy Premier and Minister of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs for Alberta Jim Horsman.