1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Canada and Ukraine: expanded cooperation (12/29/96)

1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Canada and Ukraine: expanded cooperation

Canada's relationship with Ukraine in 1996 started on a sour note after the federal government announced it would discontinue funding Radio Canada International, which transmits programming to Ukraine, as a cost-saving measure.

In January, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta issued a news release decrying the move: "It is ironic that the Ukrainian section of RCI is due to be closed when RCI has finally gained rights from Ukraine's state radio authorities to rebroadcast RCI's Ukrainian section programming on Ukraine's AM state radio on a daily basis."

Also in January, the third phase of a Canadian-Ukrainian nursing initiative, sponsored by the Canada-Ukraine Partners Program Partners in Health project, began bilateral exchanges and the development of a master's degree program for Ukrainian nurses.

In February, Ukraine's third ambassador to Canada, Volodymyr Furkalo, who headed the foreign policy directorate in the president's administration in Kyiv, presented his credentials to Governor General Romeo LeBlanc at a Rideau Hall ceremony on February 14 - three weeks after Canada's second ambassador to Ukraine, Christopher Westdal, who served as Canadian ambassador to South Africa, Bangladesh and Burma, presented his to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on January 23.

In welcoming Mr. Furkalo, Governor General LeBlanc, who serves as the queen's official representative to Canada and functions as the country's constitutional head of state, said Canada had "devoted much energy to expanding [its] bilateral trade and establishing the necessary framework of agreements [with Ukraine]. With time, and as the economic reforms in Ukraine take hold, we can expect that our commercial ties will grow substantially."

In March, Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps, who also serves as Minister of Canadian Heritage, announced that Radio Canada International would be spared the fiscal-cutting knife for another year.

On April 26, Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy addressed the House of Commons on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. He said Canada intends to continue its "political and economic cooperation with Ukraine in nuclear safety and energy sector development and other vital fields - both bilaterally and multilaterally."

About 500 people gathered in front of Parliament Hill on April 29 to remember the tragedy. During the 10th anniversary remembrances, the Canadian Friends of Ukraine also presented an incubator to Ambassador Furkalo; it will be used in the neonatal ward of the Zhytomyr Regional Children's Hospital. Also, a photo and art exhibit recalling the accident was held at the Art Gallery of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton; the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) announced an agreement with SaskPower Commercial to help modernize a thermal power plant in Ukraine in a $3.5 million (about $2.6 million U.S.), five-year contract; and Ottawa Mayor Jacquelin Holzman declared April 26 "The Chornobyl Nuclear Reactor Accident Day."

Also in late April, the Ukrainian-Canadian firm Kozlova Enterprises Inc. organized the country's first Ukrainian trade fair at the Metro Convention Center, at which more than 200 private- and state-run firms exhibited their products and services. A Ukrainian-Canadian business seminar was also held.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, Ambassador Furkalo told a Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association audience in late May that Ukrainian exports to Canada had increased by five times between 1994 and 1995, while Canadian exports to Ukraine had doubled during the same period. Also in May, a delegation from the Toronto-based Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce travelled to several Ukrainian cities promoting bilateral trade and partnerships.

Several new Canadian-Ukrainian partnerships were launched throughout 1996, including one on June 24, in which CIDA announced a $5 million ($3.6 million U.S.), five-year Small Business and Economic Development project for the Ivano-Frankivsk region, led by Confederation College's Northwest Enterprise Center in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

For the fifth year in a row, Canada Day celebrations were held the weekend before the July 1 birthday. This year heralded the planting of Ukraine's first Canadian sugar maple tree in Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko Park.

On August 23, Ambassador Furkalo hosted a diplomatic reception at his residence to mark Ukraine's fifth anniversary of independence.

Ukrainian Justice Minister Serhii Holovatyi spent a week in Canada in late September. During his visit, Mr. Holovatyi signed a bilateral treaty with Canada's justice minister, Allan Rock, "On Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters" (which took effect November 1).

Earlier in the month, CIDA had announced a $2.5 million (about $1.8 million U.S.) project over close to three years to support a Canadian Bureau for International Education-run program involving Ukraine's Academy of Public Administration, as well as an exchange and internship program at several Canada-based academic institutions.

In the area of health care reform in Ukraine, two Canadian physicians travelled to Ukraine to help with the country's anti-AIDS and anti-drugs strategy as part of the Partners in Health initiative.

In late October, the federal government announced five new aid projects for Ukraine during Minister Axworthy's visit to Ukraine, where he attended a meeting of the Canada-Ukraine Intergovernmental Economic Commission in Kyiv. All of them dealt with the after-effects of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear accident and all were to receive CIDA funding.

They included: Toronto's Help Us Help the Children, which received $235,000 ($169,000 U.S.) to provide medicine, food and clothing to about 30,000 children age 17 and under who live in almost 150 Ukrainian orphanages; and four projects worth $7.5 million (about $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 worth $2.8 million (about $2 million U.S.).

Following his October 24 meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Hennadii Udovenko, Mr. Axworthy also announced a series of agreements that would develop Ukraine's energy sector, including a $150 million (about $109 million U.S.) project by Ontario-based Northumberland Power for the reconstruction and modernization of Ukrainian electric power plants and a plan to build a "World Trade Center" in Kyiv at a cost of about $400 million (about $290 million U.S.).

In mid-November, the Ukraine Enterprise Corp., whose mandate is to offer Ukrainian enterprises Western partners and capital, technical assistance, accounting expertise and personnel management, began trading on the Edmonton-based Alberta Stock Exchange. In the first phase of funding, the company had raised close to $9 million (about $6 million U.S.).

By year's end, 26 Ukrainian law professors had been interviewed for eight, one-year training positions in the law schools at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, McGill University in Montreal and Toronto's York University. The Ukrainian academics will comprise the faculty at the Center of Legal Studies at Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv.

And, just two weeks before Christmas, the fate of Radio Canada International was again in doubt. In mid-December, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, which oversees RCI's mandate, announced the international service would, after all, have to go. But, no sooner did the sad news come from CBC President Perrin Beatty's mouth than federal Ministers Copps and Axworthy arrived at the 11th hour to save the short-wave radio service. RCI's $16 million (about $12 million U.S.) budget would be shared by the departments of Canadian Heritage, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, National Defense, and CIDA.

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