It is one of the fastest growing regions on the continent. This fact is all the more remarkable because that part of the region that lies within New York State is among the slowest-growing areas on the continent.

Niagara Falls itself provides the region with worldwide name recognition. Toronto is a well-known international city. But few place names are as widely known as Niagara Falls. Nor are there many individual visitor attractions anywhere that rival its durable popularity.

Within a somewhat narrower frame, the geography of this part of the continent serves to funnel activity toward the Niagara region. Any kind of surface traffic from Southern Ontario to the eastern United States or vice versa must go through the region and across the Niagara River. This is an asset waiting to be captured.

Finally, the U.S.-Canada border is highly permeable, relatively speaking. The North American Free Trade Agreement will make it more so as the years advance, and technology promises to ease remaining logistical impediments to trade.

However, if we create a region that crosses the border, we begin to create the type of tension that, if used properly, leads to innovation that creates value and therefore wealth. Though relatively permeable, the border is still sticky enough, and the two nations dissimilar enough, to demand innovation to deal with it.

The specific opportunities include the differential between two tax regimes governing personal, corporate and research income; two regulatory regimes for pharmaceutical testing and performance standards for equipment; two educational systems; two medical systems; two sets of professional bodies; two sets of competencies; two prevailing wage rates.

Given these productive tensions, it is possible for this city-region to become one of the world’s leading centers for economic and technological innovation. It is possible for the region not only to survive, but to flourish. But if this is the opportunity, what specifically is the approach?

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