St. Catharines MP tapped to assist Industry Minister; trade mission is set
by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau
TORONTO - Walter Lastewka, the member of Parliament for St. Catharines, Ontario, was assigned to another term of assisting Industry Minister John Manley with his parliamentary and portfolio responsibilities when Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed parliamentary secretaries for the upcoming fall session.
A week earlier the PM had announced that the fifth Team Canada Trade Mission will travel to Ukraine, Poland and Russia in January 1999. Industry Canada will be handling some of the organizational work connected with the trip.
Mr. Lastewka, 57, was first elected in the October 1993 Liberal landslide that swept the Progressive Conservatives from office, and was re-elected in 1997 with 44 percent of the vote. He also sits on the Parliament's Committee on Industry.
An official at the MP's constituency office in St. Catharines said he was still assembling information on the Team Canada mission.
Team Canada update
In early August, the Team Canada Task Force set up its own website at http://www.infoexport.gc.ca/team_canada/
By August 11, over 11,000 visitors to the site had been informed that "close to 2,000 Canadian companies ... will be invited to apply to join the Team Canada trade mission to Ukraine, Russia and Poland. To ensure the integrity and quality of the business program, the business delegation will be limited to a core of approximately 200 firms."
According to the Team Canada site, "companies who will receive an invitation to apply will be identified through a consultative process involving provincial government economic development authorities, International Trade Centers, Canadian embassies, federal government departments, as well as private sector associations and organizations."
Participants will be selected on a first-come-first-served basis until the application deadline (December 15) or the maximum number of business participants is reached.
The site outlines criteria to join the élite commercial and trade junket. The applying firm or institution "must be an active exporter or be export-ready; must have a corporate presence in Canada; must produce goods and/or provide specialized services for international markets; must demonstrate the capacity to sustain international marketing activities in the countries or regions selected for the mission; must be willing to pay the business program fee [about $10,000], which would likely include the cost of transportation and accommodation."
Those interested in participating are encouraged to contact their provincial government economic development authority or the nearest International Trade Center (ITC), whose offices coincide with those of the national Industry Ministry.
Likely participants include the Edmonton-based Grant MacEwan Community College, which has an office in Ukraine; Atomic Energy of Canada Limited; Baker & McKenzie, a law firm with an office in Ukraine; and the Royal Canadian Mint, which printed the first issue of Ukraine's official currency in 1996).
Participants in Canada's previous missions have included manufacturing enterprises, resource companies, banks and other financial institutions, agricultural concerns, law and consulting firms, academic and medical institutions, and even modelling agencies.
For further information, contact the Team Canada Task Force at: telephone, (613) 995-2194; fax, (613) 996-3406; there is also a toll free line: 1-888-811-1119.
Contact information for selected provincial ITC's follow below. (For those in the Yukon Territory, contact the British Columbia office; for those in the Northwest Territories, contact the Alberta office; for those in the Maritime provinces, please consult the website.)
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 23, 1998, No. 34, Vol. LXVI
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