In recent weeks, World Trade Center Alaska has launched a new trade development program focused on expanding business opportunities between Alaska and Canada.

The “Canada: Opportunities Next Door” program seeks to build upon the already strong foundation of cross-border commercial ties that have kept Canada one of the state’s top trading partners for decades.

The new program also serves to highlight the importance of Canada to Alaska’s international trade economy, particularly to its natural resource industries. Canadian companies are not only customers of Alaskan resource exports, they are, in many cases, investors in the very projects that produce the exports, whether they are destined to Canada or elsewhere in the world.

Trailing only Japan and Korea, Canada has traditionally been the state’s third largest export market. It fell to the fourth position two years ago as Alaska’s business with a rapidly growing China propelled that country into the third position. In 2006, shipments from Alaska to Canada totaled $445 million, a dramatic 100 percent increase over the previous year. The increase was fueled primarily by the higher prices received by exporters of minerals. Last year, minerals accounted for 72 percent of the state’s total exports to Canada. The two other major export categories were seafood at 15 percent, and energy products at 4 percent.

The state’s mining sector has attracted considerable Canadian participation. Teck Cominco Ltd., a Canadian firm, owns Red Dog Mine, the world’s largest producer of zinc concentrate, located near Kotzebue in Northwest Alaska. To date, the company has invested more than $700 million in facilities at the mine. The company employs nearly 500 workers and more than half of these are shareholders of NANA Regional Corp., the landholder where the mine is located.

A Canadian mining company, Toronto-based Kinross Corp., owns Fort Knox, a gold mine just north of Fairbanks. The Fort Knox Mine operates year-round and employs some 425 workers. Another example is the Canadian-Japanese joint venture development of the Pogo Gold Mine, also near Fairbanks. A partnership between Teck Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining, the mine poured its first gold in February last year and production is expected to average 400,000 ounces annually.

In addition to owning and operating mines, Canadian companies are leaders in the exploration of new mineral and metal deposits in Alaska. In a recent McDowell Group study of the economic impact of Alaska’s mining industry, it was noted that since 1981 mining and exploration companies have spent $1 billion on mineral exploration programs. The bulk of these expenditures can be attributed to Canadian firms. In 2005, for example, 72 percent of the record $103 million in exploration spending was derived from Canadian sources. Canadian firms engaged in exploration programs included NovaGold Resources, Northern Dynasty and St. Andrews Gold Fields Ltd.

It not just mining that has brought Canadian enterprises to Alaska. Calgary-based Agrium bought the former Unocal fertilizer plant in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula in 2000. The plant produces urea and ammonia for agricultural and industrial customers. The company exports these products to buyers in Asia, Mexico and the Lower 48. In the state’s oil and gas sector, the Canadians also have a presence. Petro-Canada, one of the country’s largest oil and gas companies, and Talisman Energy, through its Alaska subsidiary FEX, are actively exploring for oil in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. In May, Talisman announced that it had struck oil during a series of exploratory wells located on the federal lands about 60 miles southeast of Barrow.

Canada is a sizable participant in Alaska’s seafood industry both as a processor and as an export destination. In 2006, seafood exports from Alaska to Canada totaled $67 million. Alaska General Seafoods, owned by the Jim Pattison Group, Canada’s third-largest privately owned company, is one of the larger seafood processing firms in Alaska. The Vancouver-based company produces canned salmon and salmon roe products from its plants in Naknek, Ketchikan and Egegik. During the peak season, the company employs more than 600 workers.

It should be noted that the flow of business and investment is not entirely in one direction. A growing number of Alaska firms are establishing offices and operations in Canada, including a number that are pursuing opportunities in the booming oil and gas and mining sectors. As part of  “Canada: Opportunities Next Door” program, the World Trade Center Alaska and the U.S. Commercial Service offices of Alaska and Alberta will conduct a trade mission to Calgary and Edmonton later this year. Activities such as this will foster expanded business connections.

The Alaska-Canada relationship is significant and long-standing. It is a partnership forged from a common border and many shared interests. Our pasts and future are closely linked. Soon, a pipeline that enables Alaska to commercialize its vast natural gas reserves may also connect us and lead to an exciting new chapter of mutual prosperity and friendship.

Greg Wolf is the executive director of the World Trade Center Alaska. He can be reached at greg@wtcak.org.