UCC opens new office in Ottawa (06/30/96)

UCC opens new office in Ottawa

by Christopher Guly

OTTAWA - The Ottawa branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) held an open house on June 11 at its office's new location.

In late May, the UCC office moved from Barrister House on Elgin Street - where its operations were based for almost five years - to new digs at Constitution Square on Albert Street.

"We're now a lot closer to Parliament Hill," said Andrij Hluchowecky, director of the UCC's Ottawa office.

The new Canada Ukraine Partners Program (CUPP), established in January and which Mr. Hluchowecky administers, is also based in the new office. The UCC directly manages one component of the CUPP - the Promotion and Advisory Services Unit, which serves in an advisory capacity to the CUPP and the program's funders, the Canadian International Development Agency.

Rent is cheaper at the new UCC Ottawa location: $900 a month compared with $1,500 (about a $670-to-$1,100 ratio in U.S. dollars) at the old spot.

Some Canadian organizations involved in Ukrainian partnerships are also situated in Constitution Square, including the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

The UCC now also has access to a spiffy, second-floor boardroom. In fact, that is where the Ottawa branch held its June 11 wine-and-cheese reception at which some of the 30 students of the Ukrainian Academy for Public Administration were present. This year marked the conclusion of a three-year, $4.5 million (about $3.4 million U.S.) Canadian internship of the academy's students in the master's in public administration program.

Prior to last June, the academy - now affiliated with the Office of the President in Kyiv - was known as the Institute of Public Administration and Local Government, headed by Canadian Dr. Bohdan Krawchenko.

For the last three years, students have served one-month internships in Canada, the United States, Britain, France and Germany. In Canada, the universities of Manitoba and Toronto have been involved in hosting the former students. This year, it was Ottawa's Carleton University.

"The one-month internship is intended to introduce Ukrainians to a mixture of theory and practice in public administration," said Tom Monastyrski, program manager for the exchange project at the Canadian Bureau for International Education in Ottawa.

"We try to get Canadian professors to give them lectures on public administration in Canada and bring in different departments to offer them a little bit of theory on such subjects as Canadian human rights policy and multiculturalism," he added.

Sergey Ostroverkhov, who specialized in local government control at the academy's Dnipropetrovske branch, said he came to Canada to better understand the country's distribution of executive, legislative and judicial administrative powers.

"There is a lot of discussion on this subject at the moment in Ukraine," said the 28-year-old, who works as an administrative planner for the Zaporizhzhia Oblast government.

Meanwhile, Ivan Shkurat's mission in Canada was more political. A member of Ukraine's Liberal Party and chief of the electoral commission in Donetske, the 32-year-old has his eye on a future political career back home.

"I am interested in political stabilization and would like to know how Canadians, and specifically the Liberal Party of Canada, approaches this subject," he said. "Canada has its problems with Quebec, and Ukraine has its problems between the East and the West."

But their one-month visit to Canada wasn't limited to a look-see for the two Ukrainians. Both told The Weekly they wanted to use their time in Ottawa to promote Ukraine as a place for business investment.

"I have been asking the Canadian businessmen I meet, 'Why not invest in Ukraine?'" said Mr. Shkurat.

Mr. Ostroverkhov, who arrived in Ottawa later than Mr. Shkurat, said he hoped to visit as many regional governments and embassies in Ottawa to learn more about their decision-making operations and share information with them about the Ukrainian experience.

"I want to know about the management process in the financial, cultural and social spheres," he said. "I want to meet Canadian businessmen who are interested in my region and find future partners," he said.

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