Freeland tasked with tapping Canadian businesses to help rebuild Ukraine

Chrystia Freeland, center, and then-defence minister Bill Blair, right, talk to Polish and Canadian troops during a joint exercise that provides training to soldiers from Ukraine near Jezewo, central Poland, on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

OTTAWA — Seven weeks ago, Prime Minister Mark Carney assigned former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland to be Canada’s new special envoy for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Canadians haven’t heard much about the job since, and nothing at all about how Ukraine can be rebuilt while Russia continues its wide-scale bombing of critical infrastructure.

But experts say Canada has a major opportunity now to help preserve Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law — and to turn a profit in multiple sectors.

Here’s what we know.

What is Freeland’s job?

It’s not clear. The former journalist has not been interviewed by a Canadian news outlet since her appointment, despite multiple requests from The Canadian Press.

A September cabinet order establishing Freeland’s new role says she is serving as a parliamentary secretary to Carney for a term of 12 months.

Alexandre Lévêque, an assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada, told the Senate foreign affairs committee on Oct. 22 that the job comes with a single staff member and support from his team at Global Affairs and the Privy Council.

“Madame Freeland, I think, is developing the role, as she’s beginning her functions in it,” he said.

“I think essentially, her role will be to detect opportunities — so bringing … the Canadian private sector, finding investors, finding potential Canadian expertise, particularly in things like infrastructure development (and the) mining industry.”

In a Nov. 5 response to a parliamentary request for information from Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, the Privy Council Office said the envoy role comes with the $20,000 salary bump all parliamentary secretaries receive. It said “certain expenses” incurred by Freeland, ”such as travel, could be paid by the Privy Council Office.”

Genuis asked if the job came with any set of goals. The PCO did not offer any but said Freeland will advise the government on both economic reconstruction and Canada’s efforts to bring home thousands of abducted Ukrainian children taken into Russia over the course of the war.

The PCO also said Freeland would receive no “administrative support,” despite Lévêque testifying otherwise.

In a recent piece she wrote for The Financial Times, Freeland argued Ukraine can win against Russia if it’s sufficiently financed by western countries. She called Ukraine an “innovation nation,” citing its remarkable success with a decentralized approach to building drones.

In a statement, Freeland’s office said she visited Kyiv in September and “the Ukrainian government has since invited Ms. Freeland on an official visit to Ukraine later this year to talk about how Canada can best support Ukraine’s reconstruction.”

How can you rebuild a country still at war?

Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andrii Plakhotniuk said even with the war going on, his country still manages to export products while building out an arms industry that has been forced to produce rapidly and adapt to new technology on the fly.

Plakhotniuk told the Senate committee that Canada already has preferred trade access in Ukraine through its recently updated trade agreement and the goodwill that comes with being a major financial donor.

“Ukraine is ready to develop joint production of defence matériel with our partners, including Canada,” he testified.

While Plakhotniuk did not get into specifics, other countries are showing how such a partnership could work.

France’s defence ministry is in talks with carmaker Renault about building drones partly or entirely in Ukraine — a partnership that would bring government financing to both Ukrainian and French businesses.

“Certainly, we understand the current risk of doing business in Ukraine. My message to all our friends in Canada here is we should use each and every opportunity to start business in Ukraine,” Plakhotniuk said, adding that this effort could start with projects in neighbouring countries.

“My major message is not to wait (until) we have postwar reconstruction efforts. We need your presence now. We need your good advice, and we need capacity-building and many other things.”

How keen are Canadian companies?

Lévêque testified that a small team of Canadian public servants stationed in Kyiv, and some trade officials in Poland, are working to find economic opportunities for Canadian firms in Ukraine. He conceded they’ve seen limited progress.

“Given the risk that exists, both to their physical safety and to their investments, a lot of these business arrangements are outside the country,” he said in French.

“The fact is that the appetite of Canadian companies to do business in Ukraine remains relatively limited at this time.”

Still, he said, the government sends representatives to various “reconstruction fairs” that bring businesses and governments together to discuss projects to further Ukraine’s recovery.

“We also send our ministers and trade commissioners, as well as Crown corporations such as Export Development Canada and the Canadian Commercial Corporation, which are there to facilitate this type of trade, especially when it comes to investments in the military sector or between governments,” he testified in French.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press