Boost to Job Opportunities for Idahoans

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho aims to boost its residents' job prospects by intensifying involvement in an economic group that spans the U.S.'s Northwestern states and five Canadian provinces. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter Thursday signed an executive order to create the Idaho Council of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region. The region is a public and private non-profit created in 1991 by Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. By now creating a state council, Otter hopes to increase opportunities for Idaho residents in places like Alberta, whose natural-resources boom is fueling demand for thousands of workers. Other existing areas of interest for the group include promoting tourism, fighting invasive disease and promoting research into livestock disease.