WHEREAS,  the Dragon Products Company cement plant in Thomaston is the only cement manufacturer in Maine and in all of New England; and

WHEREAS,  Dragon Products Company directly employs over 100 citizens of the State in the process of manufacturing cement from limestone and Dragon Products Company's manufacturing operations directly or indirectly support over 500 Maine jobs; and

WHEREAS,  the Canadian Province of Quebec has subsidized the construction of McInnis Cement's new 2,000,000-ton per year capacity cement manufacturing plant in Port-Daniel-Gascons, Quebec; and

WHEREAS,  both McInnis Cement executives and Quebec officials have stated publicly that there is no Canadian market for the new plant's cement production and that over 90% of the new plant's production will be exported to the United States to compete directly with Dragon Products Company and other domestic cement manufacturers; and

WHEREAS,  McInnis Cement has completed construction of a deep-water cement import terminal in Providence, Rhode Island to serve the Boston, Massachusetts and southern New England cement markets and is building a 2nd deep-water cement import terminal in the Bronx, New York City to serve the New York and New Jersey cement markets; and

WHEREAS,  McInnis Cement started manufacturing cement in July 2017 and shipped its first vessel of subsidized Canadian cement to its Providence terminal in August 2017; and

WHEREAS,  the subsidized Canadian cement being exported by McInnis Cement to the United States poses a threat to the continued operations of the Dragon Products Company cement plant in Thomaston and the hundreds of Maine jobs directly or indirectly supported by the plant; now, therefore, be it