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DELEGATION MEMBERS AND STAFF

From 24–27 February 2017, Senator Michael L. MacDonald, Co-Chair and the Honourable Wayne Easter, P.C., M.P., Co-Chair led a delegation from the Canadian Section of the Canada–United States Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG) to the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA) in Washington, D.C. The other members of the delegation were Senator Terry Mercer, Mr. Randy Hoback, M.P. and Mr. Brian Masse, M.P., Vice-Chair. The delegation was accompanied by Ms. Miriam Burke, the Canadian Section’s Executive Secretary, and Ms. June Dewetering, Senior Advisor to the Canadian Section.

THE EVENT

Founded more than a century ago when President Theodore Roosevelt gathered state governors in order to discuss the nation’s resources, the NGA is the collective voice of U.S. governors from the 50 states, three territories and two commonwealths. It is also a public policy organization that represents the governors on Capitol Hill and before the U.S. Administration on federal issues that affect them, and that develops and implements solutions to public policy challenges.

The NGA, which meets in the winter and summer each year, is supervised by a chair, vice chair and executive committee, and governors participate on five issue-related standing committees – Economic Development & Commerce, Education & Workforce, Health & Human Services, Homeland Security & Public Safety, and Natural Resources.

The theme for the NGA’s activities in 2017 – including the winter and summer meetings – is “Meet the Threat: States Confront the Cyber Challenge.” This initiative has been selected by NGA Chair Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

DELEGATION OBJECTIVES FOR THE EVENT

Members of the IPG’s Canadian Section have been attending the winter and summer meetings of the NGA for several years. At this meeting, delegates spoke with a number of governors, including Governors Robert Bentley (Alabama), Matt Bevin (Kentucky), Kate Brown (Oregon), Roy Cooper (North Carolina), Dennis Daugaard (South Dakota), Mark Dayton (Minnesota), Mary Fallin (Oklahoma), Gary Herbert (Utah), Asa Hutchison (Arkansas), David Ige (Hawaii), Matt Mead (Wyoming), Terry McAuliffe (Virginia), Gina Raimondo (Rhode Island), Brian Sandoval (Nevada), Phil Scott (Vermont), Rick Snyder (Michigan), Chris Sununu (New Hampshire), Bill Walker (Alaska), Scott Walker (Wisconsin) and Tom Wolf (Pennsylvania). In particular, they spoke to the governors about a range of issues, including the nature and value of the trade relationship between Canada and their states.

Their interactions with governors enable Canadian members of the IPG to achieve better the aims of finding points of convergence in respective national policies, initiating dialogue on points of divergence, encouraging exchanges of information and promoting better understanding on shared issues of concern. Moreover, the NGA meetings provide the IPG’s Canadian Section with an important means by which to provide input to, and gather information about, state-level issues that affect Canada.

ACTIVITIES DURING THE EVENT

The NGA’s 2017 winter meeting comprised the following sessions:

• Early Childhood Education: A Foundation for Economic Success (Opening Session)
• What the Future Holds (Luncheon Session)
• Meet the Threat: States Confront the Cyber Challenge (Plenary Session)
• Ending Childhood Hunger: Improving Lives and Investing in America’s Future (Joint Plenary Session with Governors’ Spouses)
• Civic Engagement (Plenary Session)
• National Infrastructure Bank (Plenary Session)
• Power to the States (Plenary Session)
• Artificial Intelligence and the Labor Market (Plenary Session)
• The State Government Advantage: Insights from the NGA-Commissioned Survey (Luncheon Session)
• Infrastructure Spurring Innovation (Closing Session).

This report summarizes key points that were made at the meeting’s sessions.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: A FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC SUCCESS

Jennifer Garner, Actor and Early Education Advocate

• The United States needs a “national conversation” about early childhood education.
• When households are poor, parents may not have the capacity to read to their children.
• From a developmental perspective, by age 4, a child who grows up in poverty is 1.5 years behind his/her non-poor peers.
• The brain grows at a phenomenal rate between birth and age 5; consequently, it is critically important to nurture young children.

Mark Shriver, Save the Children

• In terms of early childhood education, accessibility without quality is a self-defeating approach.
• When considering the manner in which early childhood education initiatives could be funded, options include social impact funding, expanding relevant tax credits and deductions, making tax credits refundable and/or expanding municipal bonds.

Mike Petters, Huntington Ingalls Industries

• It is important to support children so that they can be the best that they can be.
• The return on investments in early childhood education initiatives is always positive.
• At present, one in four children will “make it,” and will “support” the other three.
• Education should be viewed as a pipeline.
• The quality of the workforce is critical for businesses, and the workforce needs to embrace lifelong learning.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Amy Webb, Futurist and Author

• It is important to try to “see around corners” in order to attempt to understand what is coming next.
• People may become frightened if they do not know what is likely to happen next.
• People are constantly being “assaulted” with information, and are losing their ability to think critically.
• The world has reached an inflection point; globalization has changed everything, there is a vast amount of new technology and information is being “democratized.”
• If people fear the unknown, they may be held back.
• People should focus on identifying patterns in information and understanding the “signals that are on the horizon.”
• In the future, a lot of jobs will be lost because of artificial intelligence, but a lot of jobs will be created as well.

MEET THE THREAT: STATES CONFRONT THE CYBER CHALLENGE

John Carlin, Morrison & Foerster LLP

• Threats – including cyber threats – are crossing borders, and the United States is not “where it needs to be” regarding cyber security.
• There is no system that is safe if someone is determined to “get in.”
• Intelligence should be shared across governmental entities.
• In relation to cyber threats, deterrence efforts should be enhanced.
• Hacking into systems is now going beyond data repositories to include Internet-linked pacemakers, drones and automobiles.

Mary Galligan, Deloitte & Touche, LLP

• Within U.S. states, governance measures are in place regarding cyber issues, including cyber briefings and risk assessments.
• Regarding cyber, resiliency and access management are key issues.
• States are already accustomed to being resilient, to identifying problems, and to mitigating the effects of problems and recovering from them.
• Regarding access management, it is important to ensure that people are able to access only the data and information to which they should have access; authentication measures should be put in place.
• A cyber risk is a business risk.
• There is a difference between a cyber breach and cyber fraud; the former involves hacking into a system, while the latter involves using a computer to commit fraud.

Vinton Cerf, Google

• The root of the cyber problem is software; it does not seem to be possible to write software that is “bug-free,” and these bugs get exploited.
• Better tools for writing software are needed and computer programmers should be supported.
• Hacking is a pernicious problem that is hard to solve.
• If a technological solution to preventing a problem exists, it should be used; if not, those who create the problem should face consequences.
• Two-factor authentication is a powerful tool for enhancing security; however, it is difficult to get people to accept responsibility for – and the inconvenience of – two-factor authentication.
• Cyber threats are everyone’s problem; the attacker and the victim can be in different jurisdictions, giving rise to the need for agreements among jurisdictions regarding cyber-related actions that are needed.

ENDING CHILDHOOD HUNGER: IMPROVING LIVES AND INVESTING IN AMERICA’S FUTURE

David Sanders, Casey Family Programs

• The United States needs to adopt a public health approach to child safety.
• There is a significant relationship between food insecurity and maltreatment fatalities.
• Experiences early in life matter, and the brain develops differently if it is under prolonged stress.
• Integrated, cross-functional approaches are needed to reduce child hunger in the United States.

Hugh Acheson, Chef and Author

• Children need to be fed in order to learn.
• The next generation needs to be “cultivated”; society should not “abandon” a generation by not feeding its children.
• The United States has the ability to solve the problem of child hunger.
• The United States’ “army of tomorrow” is “the children of today.”

Rodney Taylor, Fairfax County Public Schools

• In the United States, the problem of hungry children can be solved, and proven solutions exist; however, cooperation, collaboration and leadership are needed.
• In order to “set children up for excellence,” attention must be paid to ensuring that children are fed and ready to learn.
• Because hunger does not “take a vacation,” measures should exist to ensure that children are fed throughout the year.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

Karen Summers, Joe Foss Institute

• Although there should be a national effort regarding civic engagement in the United States, education should be customized to meet each state’s requirements.
• The United States’ education system should include civics courses in order to establish a baseline of knowledge.

NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE BANK

Leo Hindery, Intermedia Partners

• Infrastructure is a part of governors’ stewardship of their states.
• As the states’ budgets are unable to fund the total amount needed for infrastructure and infrastructure improvements, some stakeholders are advocating the establishment of a national infrastructure bank as an alternative to – or in addition to – such other funding sources as block grants and/or new budgetary capital devoted to infrastructure investments.
• According to one proposal, a national infrastructure bank could be a wholly owned government corporation with non-partisan directors appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate; it could be funded by a Congressional appropriation and loans by pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, etc.
• If a national infrastructure bank is established in the United States, all states should have an equal opportunity to have their projects approved, projects should be approved in a timely manner, environmental reviews should be subject to reasonable limitations, and 90% of the materials used in the projects should be U.S.-made.

POWER TO THE STATES

Brian Kelly, U.S. News & World Report

• Many U.S. states are experiencing complex problems.
• A ranking of states on various indicators, such as education and infrastructure, can aid in decision making.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE LABOUR MARKET

Jason Furman, Peterson Institute for International Economics

• The United States’ unemployment rate has not increased despite more than 100 years of automation; that said, Americans have become “richer” in material goods and in terms of leisure.
• The United States is experiencing slow productivity growth.
• Job losses are not inevitable, but nor is employment growth.
• The best “insurance” against technological change is education; workers who are better educated are better able to cope with such change.
• The United States’ “safety net” matters, and everyone should be able to benefit from the “growing economic pie.”

THE STATE GOVERNMENT ADVANTAGE: INSIGHTS FROM THE NGA-COMMISSIONED SURVEY

Frank Luntz, Luntz Global Partners

• For the first time in the United States’ recorded history, people were “yelling and screaming” as the current President was inaugurated.
• Americans no longer talk, or relate, to each other; also, no one listens.
• U.S. voters definitely trust state governments and governors more than they trust the members of the U.S. Congress; in the view of voters, the closer is the government to the people, the better is the government.
• Americans want an efficient, effective, accountable government.
• Legislators should focus on the issues about which voters care, and they should focus on people, rather than on policy.
• In the United States, income inequality and the environment are highly partisan issues.
• Safety and education are Americans’ top two priorities at this time.

INFRASTRUCTURE SPURRING INNOVATION

Secretary Elaine Chao, U.S. Department of Transportation

• New automated transportation technologies are transformational.
• Transportation-related innovations are being led by the private sector.
• Automated transportation technologies lead to expanded transportation options for underserved populations, such as seniors and disabled persons, and have the potential to reduce crashes and fatalities that are the result of human error.
• Drones can be useful in a range of applications, including to perform rail safety checks, to inspect pipelines, to identify the location of fires, etc.
• In the United States, the federal government should be a catalyst for – not a barrier to – safe, effective technologies.
• A sceptical public needs to be “educated” about automated technologies.

Regina Hopper, ITS America

• Today, everything is being transformed, including transportation; technology has changed, and continues to change, everything.
• Intelligent, transformational transportation has a range of benefits, including the following:

  -	It strengthens an economy at its foundation.
  -	It saves lives.
  -	It enables the existing transportation system to perform better.
  -	It promotes energy efficiency.
  -	It broadens access to, and equity within, the transportation system.
  -	It creates high-skill, high-paying jobs.

• Security and privacy are not mutually exclusive; they go together.
• There is a need to address cybersecurity issues and to reduce vulnerabilities in the United States’ transportation systems.
• Infrastructure investments and investments in transportation technologies should be increased.

Jamie Adams, Lockheed Martin Corporation

• Autonomy is a key strategic pursuit, as is cybersecurity.
• Almost all of the risks that exist with autonomous vehicles are also present with human drivers.

Respectfully submitted,