Five new projects for Ukraine benefit from Canadian aid (12/01/96)

Five new projects for Ukraine benefit from Canadian aid

by Christopher Guly

OTTAWA - The Canadian government announced five new aid projects for Ukraine during Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy's late October visit to Kyiv to attend a meeting of the Canada-Ukraine Intergovernmental Economic Commission. All of them deal with the after-effects of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear accident, and all are receiving funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Toronto's Help Us Help the Children group will receive $235,000 ($169,000 U.S.) to provide medicine, infant formula, food, clothing, educational materials and cleaning products to about 30,000 children age 17 and under who live in almost 150 Ukrainian orphanages.

"Orphans are innocent victims of tragedy ... including many who lost their parents as a result of the Chornobyl accident," said Don Boudria, Canada's minister for international cooperation, who is responsible for CIDA. Since 1993, Help Us Help the Children has collected and distributed about $4 million ($3 million U.S.) worth of supplies to Ukrainian orphanages.

CIDA also announced four projects worth $7.5 million ($5.4 million U.S.) to help Ukraine shut down the Chornobyl nuclear power station, as well as to modernize its old hydroelectric power plants and electricity distribution.

One is a two-year, $2.8 million ($2 million U.S.) technical assistance project managed by Hydro-Quebec International and involving provincial hydro utilities from Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. A part of the $200 million (U.S.) World Bank-financed large-scale energy reform program in Ukraine, the initiative is designed to help Ukraine in engineering design, preparing calls for and evaluating international competitive bids to refurbish the country's hydro plants, drafting supplier contracts, and monitoring the installation of equipment and systems. The Canadian team will be working with Ukraine's DniproHydroEnergo corporation, the National Distribution Center and the country's Energy Ministry.

Montreal's Photosur Geomat is involved in another project to transfer technology and expertise to assess Ukrainian nuclear contamination so that the Ukrainian government can organize activities to minimize the risk of radiation to people. Photosur, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin International, received $2.7 million ($1.9 million U.S.) from CIDA for the 30-month project. Working with Natural Resources Canada, the Montreal firm will install computer systems, improve data collection and processing, and introduce new technology and advanced training in Ukraine.

CIDA is also contributing $420,000 ($302,158 U.S.) to a two-year project in which Bubble Technologies Inc. of Chalk River, Ontario, will provide radiation monitoring equipment to Ukraine's Ministry of the Environment and Nuclear Protection, and the Chornobyl station.

Finally, the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada (AECB) will receive $1.7 million ($1.2 million U.S.) over the next three years to finance safety inspection and licensing training of officials at nuclear agencies in Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania. In 1992, the Canadian government announced a $30 million ($22 million U.S.) nuclear safety initiative targeting Ukraine. Two years ago, AECB led Canadian-based training sessions for six groups of Ukrainian nuclear energy specialists.

Joe Didyk, who heads AECB's training center, said that although the Ukrainians possess advanced scientific and technical skills, Ukraine's regulatory framework essentially leaves them hamstrung to effectively do their jobs. "Though Ukraine is making good progress in introducing sound legislation in regulating its nuclear power industry, scientists are still not paid very well and are still getting caught up with bureaucratic policy snags," said Mr. Didyk, whose parents were born in western Ukraine.

Another group of Ukrainian nuclear scientists is scheduled to visit AECB in early December as part of the next phase of the training program.

With CIDA's new nuclear-related projects in Ukraine, Mr. Boudria said reforming the Ukrainian energy sector "is critical to the country's economic development."