Team Canada trip downgraded to political visit by Chrétien (10/18/98)

Team Canada trip downgraded to political visit by Chrétien

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - While Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was in Winnipeg attending a Liberal Party fund-raiser on October 8, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in Ottawa announced that the planned Team Canada trip to Ukraine, Poland and Russia has been downgraded to a political visit.

Mr. Chrétien will now visit the three countries without the usual delegation of provincial premiers and business leaders.

Mr. Chrétien also decided not to stay in Winnipeg until the next day, and thus did not attend the opening of the triennial Congress of Ukrainian Canadians, despite an invitation most recently proffered by outgoing Ukrainian Canadian Congress President Oleh Romaniw at a face-to-face meeting in Ottawa on September 23.

According to a PMO press release issued on October 8, Mr. Chrétien "looked forward to making his first official visits to Poland and Ukraine." He was quoted as saying: "We want to continue to encourage Ukraine in its democratic and economic transition and to highlight the success of Poland in re-establishing democracy and a market economy."

The PMO's statement indicated that Mr. Chrétien's decision was made "following consultations with the provincial governments." An October 9 report in the Ottawa Citizen daily's business section suggested the Team Canada mission "had already been delayed from September because of turmoil and a clogged autumn schedule for Canada's [provincial] premiers."

The Ottawa Citizen item also indicated that "nearly 2,000 Canadian business leaders had expressed interest in going, but formal invitations had not yet been sent out." Officials at the Team Canada Task force had earlier told The Weekly that the mailing of such invitations had been scheduled for September 4.

A brief item in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail daily's October 9 edition by Jeff Sallot suggested the three-country tour was scaled down due to the wariness of Canadian business in the wake of the financial turmoil in Russia, which has led to the devaluation of first the ruble and then the Ukrainian hryvnia.

According to Mr. Sallot's report, Mr. Chrétien expects to speak to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other officials about reforming bank regulations and establishing an efficient tax-collection system.

Mr. Chrétien was quoted in the PMO release saying that "recent weeks have made very clear that what Russia needs now is not a large-scale trade mission, it is encouragement and assistance in its difficult economic transition, and the solidarity of other nations in continuing essential reforms during these times of global economic uncertainty."

While Mr. Sallot's item suggested the new focus will be on what Canada can do to assist in speeding reforms, Mr. Chrétien seems destined to encounter an atmosphere of retrenchment, occasioned by the growing influence of Communists in the Russian Duma and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's recent offer of the prime ministership to Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko.

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