Officials from northern New York and southern Ontario met recently to discuss ways the United States and Canada can work together to improve trade, tourism and relations between the two nations.

The meeting, in Prescott, Ont., included State Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, former Ontario Senator Bob Runciman, Prescott Mayor Brett Todd, Member of Provincial Parliament Steve Clark and mayors, supervisors, city and town officials from New York border communities including Watertown, Ogdensburg, Morristown and Alexandria, and Canadian leaders from Prescott, Kingston, Aurora, Cornwall and Brockville.

The meting gave attendees a chance to talk about ways to improve cross-border tourism, trade, job creation and other topics, according to a statement from Sen. Ritchie’s office.

One by one, the leaders rose and pledged to work together to find opportunities to build stronger bonds between border communities, and cooperate to fix problems, the release said.

“On both sides of the border community leaders share the same goals, boosting businesses, creating jobs and increasing tourism, among other things,” said Ritchie.

“These are goals that we can help each other more easily achieve, if we work together. I am pleased that we are continuing to come together to share ideas, and even more pleased that we have seen an increase in the number of communities represented from both the U.S. and Canada since our last meeting. I am looking forward to continuing to foster the great relationship that exists between our communities, and our nations.”

In addition to hosting a similar ‘Building Bridges to Better Opportunity’ event in Ogdensburg last year, Ritchie also made a trip to Ottawa and delivered testimony in support of a new law that eliminates the need for American boaters to report to Canadian customs when passing through Canadian waters, so long as they do not disembark, anchor, moor, make contact with another vessel or import goods. The measure also exempts Canadian boaters from reporting to customs when they return from American to Canadian waters, as long as they meet these same conditions.

Ritchie, MPP Steve Clark and former Sen. Runciman also teamed up to form the “International Border Caucus,” legislators from both sides of the border who meet to look at ways to work together to strengthen ties, improve communication, solve common problems, boost tourism and help grow shoreline economies.

Ritchie, a native of Heuvelton, represents the western half of St. Lawrence County including Ogdensburg, Canton and Gouverneur in the state Senate.