Vermont governor in town to talk trade a week after re-election
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said his relationship with Quebec goes back to long before he entered politics. “I started racing snowmobiles early in life, so I raced at places like Valcourt, Thetford Mines, right here in Montreal, Olympic Stadium,” he said. After moving on to stock cars, he continued to race in small towns across southern Quebec. “I established a lot of relationships while here and understood the value of that,” he said. And he learned that “the values of those in Quebec are very similar to those in Vermont. We think a lot alike.” But racing wasn’t the reason Scott was in Montreal on Tuesday. He was here — exactly one week after he was re-elected to a second term — to talk trade and meet with Premier François Legault. This is his seventh visit to Canada since taking office in early 2017 — Vermont governors are elected to two-year terms — and his fourth or fifth visit to Quebec, he said. “Quebec is our largest trading partner — $5 billion in trade between Vermont and Quebec — and I thought that we should make sure that we take care of that and enhance that in any way we can because we’re much stronger as a region than we are individually.” The meeting with Legualt went “very, very well,” Scott said. “I had a great relationship with Premier Couillard,” he said. “But I can tell it’s going to be an equally good relationship with the new premier. We both have similar thoughts in terms of trying to focus on growing the economy.” Scott said he sees opportunities to expand the trading relationship between Quebec and Vermont particularly in the aeronautics and military equipment sectors. He said one example is Revision Military, a Montreal-based company that now has two production facilities in Vermont. “We’re very powerful when you think of the population and the resources that we have,” he said. Scott said Vermont is willing and ready if Hydro-Québec’s plan to export power to Massachusetts through Maine falls through. That plan was chosen after a plan to export power through New Hampshire did not get regulatory approval. The conduit through Vermont, promoted by Transmission Developers Inc., was not chosen because it was more costly than other options, but Scott said it has all the permits it needs. “I think eventually, eventually, they’ll come back to TDI and understand the value of that and that it can be done very quickly because everything is lined up and we’re a willing partner,” he said. Scott said he’s pleased that a new free trade agreement has been reached between Canada and the United States, but doesn’t understand the tactical approach taken by Washington. While Scott is a Republican, that doesn’t mean he toes the party line on trade. “There’s a lot of rhetoric out of Washington, with the president in particular, and it hasn’t been a secret from the beginning that I haven’t appreciated the style that the president uses and some of the rhetoric he uses in his approach,” Scott said. “If he says or does something that’s detrimental to Vermont and our relationship with Canada, then I call him out on it. Hasn’t made me real popular with them, but for myself this isn’t about a political party, this is about what’s good for our citizens, our people and, as well, the people of Quebec.”