Remarks by the Deputy Prime Minister celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress-Alberta Provincial Council

November 9, 2024 - Edmonton, AB

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I am so happy to be here today.

But I have to say I don’t really feel I need to be welcomed when I’m in Edmonton. I feel that I am at home. And I see in this room so many friends of many, many years and so many of the leaders of our community—people who have contributed so much for so many years.

And today, we’re here celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) in Alberta. I guess that means I was six years old when UCC was founded, and I actually can’t remember a time when UCC didn’t exist. It was so much a part of my life.

I want to start by thanking very, very deeply our amazing Ukrainian Canadian community, our amazing community here in Alberta. I want to thank the activists and the organizers. I want to thank the teachers. I want to thank the university researchers. I want to thank the organizers of community events. I want to thank everyone who has made varenyky in church basements to raise money for important activities. I have to thank the Ukrainian dancing teachers and the Ukrainian dancers, of course.

What an amazing community you are. How truly lucky I know I am for having this amazing community. 

I also want to point out UCC in Alberta has now been around for 50 years, but Ukrainians have been here in Canada, and they came first to Alberta for a lot longer. We all know the story. We know how Ivan Pylypow came here in 1891 and then went back home to Galicia and founded the first Ukrainian Canadian settlement not too far from here: Edna-Star, just east of Edmonton.

Think about what it was like. I mean, it started to get cold already. We know it’s going to get a lot colder. Imagine being in Edna-Star that first winter in 1892. They were not wearing Canada Goose parkas, right?

How amazing those first Ukrainians were. And I have to say, as someone who grew up on a farm, who knows how important our farmers are to Alberta and Canada, I’m just so proud of Ukrainian Canadians, of our community, for the historic role that our community played in really literally building Canada.

So let’s say thank you to all of those amazing first Ukrainian settlers.

Now, the thing that is amazing for me about our Ukrainian Canadian community is the way that our community has organized itself, organized itself here through UCC for 50 years now in Alberta and organized itself to build a community that continues to thrive generation after generation. I was talking to Gene here, who is here with the Lieutenant Governor. And I asked him does he speak Ukrainian, and it turns out he does. You know why? Because he went to Delwood, to the bilingual program. Guess what? I did, too.

But that is a remarkable thing, that we actually have, and have had for decades and decades now in Alberta, Ukrainian-English public schools. And that doesn’t happen by accident. That happens very specifically because of the people in this room.

I know you. I remember your organizational efforts. I was a small child, but I remember the work that happened to make those schools a reality. I remember the work that happened to be sure that we had the textbooks and the resources. I remember the work that happened to drag your—okay, I’m going to admit it—sometimes reluctant children, not only to bilingual school during the week but to Ridna Shkola on Saturday.

So I really just do want to start by recognizing, with the deepest gratitude, the generations of work that have gone to building this community, to make it possible for this community to build Canada. And the fact that having started in 1891, we are still here and we’re still sending our poor, complaining children to Ridna Shkola on Saturday and to bilingual school during the week.

And that work, it has built Canada. It has built Alberta. It has built our Ukrainian Canadian community. It has also played a central role in building multicultural Canada. The Ukrainian Canadian community really has helped to blaze a trail for how you can be a strong community, a community with a deep knowledge of and love of its heritage and its history, with deep community connections and institutions, and at the same time be 100 per cent—that’s not even enough—I’m going to say 1000 per cent Canadian. And that has not always been taken for granted. That’s not how a lot of other countries work. And that’s how Canada works, and it works that way for Ukrainian Canadians and for so many other communities in our amazing country.

And so I also really want to thank the Ukrainian Canadian community and the organizers here for the work that you have done, that we have done to be one of the pieces in Canada’s amazing multicultural mosaic. So, thank you very much.

And Lieutenant Governor, it gives me particular pleasure saying that you are here with us. You are a pioneer as well and I think it’s an honour for all of us that the lieutenant governor is here—she’s such a trailblazer—and that she’s here wearing her vyshyvanka.

So for me it’s a pleasure. It’s an honour but especially a pleasure to be with you today. I am a proud Canadian. I am a proud Ukrainian Canadian. My roots are here in this amazing community and I want to express my warmest thanks to all the sisters in our community, to everyone who has made the place where I grew up such a strong and welcoming community. Thank you so much for your work.

Now,  Ukrainians have done a lot to build Canada. Ukrainian Canadians continue to do a lot to build Canada, but it’s been hard. Every time my kids complain of the cold, I do say to them, remember, Ivan built you.

They don’t like that too much, but there you go. That was really hard. That was nation-building work. But I think we all know, and we are all thinking about, really all the time, the people who are on the front lines of nation building. The people who are on the front lines of the fight between democracy and dictatorship. And that is the brave people of Ukraine.

I am very grateful to UCC for the work you have done welcoming Ukrainians from Ukraine into our country and for the work you have done together with our government to support the brave people of Ukraine.

We had warning that Putin might launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I remember conversations we had with the Ukrainian government beforehand saying their intelligence is real.

But it was still hard to believe that it was actually happening, and I really am so grateful to our community for taking that first flow and then rallying and saying, okay, we have to support the brave people of Ukraine in that fight. But as great as everyone here is, I think we all need to recognize how outstanding Ukraine is right now. How outstanding the brave people of Ukraine are.

And none of the experts thought Ukraine could do it. I remember, and I am not alone, every single Western leader, every single leader of a NATO country was briefed. They said: “The Ukrainians probably won’t last for a week, three weeks at most. That would be really good if they can hang on for three weeks.” And I listened to that because you have to listen to it. You have to listen to the advice of experts but that little girl who went to Delwood and was quite literally raised by many of the people here, I didn’t believe it. I knew. Our people had hung on for a long time and this community knew that somehow, Ukraine would fight back. That Ukraine would find a way to keep going. That President Zelenskyy would say, give me ammunition—not a ride. That they would be there.

And it’s so terrible that it’s been two and a half years now that they have had to keep on hanging on and keep on fighting. But I think we all also need to recognize and salute the courage, the bravery, the intelligence, the resilience, the determination, which the people of Ukraine are showing every single day. And I think everyone here knows they are going to keep on fighting. I think everyone here knows that they are going to win, and Putin will be defeated.

I think it’s very important for us to remember, as much as we are supporting Ukraine, that it is Ukrainians who are fighting and dying. They haven’t asked a single Western country, a single ally country, to contribute its soldiers to the fight. Ukraine has said, we’re going to do it. We can do this. We are going to fight. If necessary, we are going to die to defend our sovereignty, our democracy, and the world’s democracy. And that is remarkable that they are doing it by themselves.

But we also know they need help. They, right now, are standing up to and holding their own against what we used to think was the world’s second mightiest military. When I was in Ukraine after the war one of the ministers said: “People used to say Russia had the second largest army in the world. Now, they just have the second largest army in Ukraine.”

But we know they do need help. They need all the help we can give them.

I was talking to you before as a daughter of this community, a Ukrainian Canadian girl from Peace River in Edmonton. Now, I’m going to talk to you as Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.

I am proud, and you should be proud, too, that Canada has provided Ukraine with the highest direct financial assistance in the G7 on a per capita basis.

You should be proud that we have contributed nearly $20 billion in combined financial, military, humanitarian, and other assistance.

Just this year alone, in direct financial assistance, we’ve contributed $2.4 billion, and that money came to Ukraine exactly when they needed it.

I talk to Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s Prime Minister, and Sergii Marchenko, Ukraine’s Finance Minister, and they let me know when they’re running out of money and they know they can count on Canada to provide that support.

Canada is an amazing country, and we are mightier than we think. Our economy actually is bigger than Russia’s. Don’t forget that. But a Canadian skill, a Canadian talent is to work together with others, and we recognized, when Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we had to find ways, not only for Canada to contribute directly, but ways for us to work with our partners and allies, to support Ukraine.

Leading up to the war, we worked with the G7 finance ministers. The economy, the world of money—that’s a battlefield, too, and we should do our part.

And so we did something that people thought could not be done before, and that was freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank. But that was just the first step.

It costs a lot of money for Ukraine to fight this war. It costs a lot of money to keep the economy going. And there were $300 billion of frozen Russian assets. There, frozen on the accounts of Western banks, even as Russia was doing devastating damage to Ukraine—killing people, destroying infrastructure, destroying power stations.

And I am so proud, and frankly, so relieved that we succeeded as a G7 in taking a hugely important step this year. And that is that we are extending $50 billion to Ukraine, secured against those frozen Russian assets.

This was a Canadian initiative and there was a high degree of skepticism when we first started talking about it, and it’s a big thing to do. But with time, we achieved a consensus of our allies that this was the right thing to do.

And so I am really also proud to say to all of you that Canada will be directly advancing—as part of that money advanced to Ukraine, secured on the Russian assets—$5 billion to Ukraine.

That’s important for practical reasons but it is also important for moral reasons. It is important because it is not right for the brave people of Ukraine. It is not right for the resolute citizens of Ukraine’s democratic allies, for people of Canada, to pay for the destruction Putin is wreaking every single day. Dictators have to know that when they invade a country, when they break the law, when they destroy to rubble a country and kill its people, they will be made to pay. That the damage will be theirs to make good.

And that is why this action—advancing Ukraine money, secured on the Russian assets—is both important for Ukraine today and tomorrow, important when it comes to Ukraine’s ability to continue to stand strong. But the principle is important, too. It’s important for Putin to know he is not going to get away with it. He is going to be defeated and he is going to pay for the damage he is causing every single day.

But as we know, the fight isn’t over. We have to continue every day, to find new ways to support Ukraine and constrain Putin.

I want to tell you—and this is the first room where I’ll be talking about this—the next initiative that Canada will be pushing ahead is getting tougher with Russian oil.

The time has come for us to be decisive about pushing Russian oil out of the world market. That Russian oil is quite literally funding Putin’s war machine. We’ve taken significant steps to push that Russian oil out of the world market. Now, we need to move further and work harder. And I believe, Canada believes, that now is the moment to undertake that work with our allies. And I’m glad to be saying that to you here at UCC Alberta because Canada as an energy power, Alberta as an energy power, has a real voice and a real role to play in making it possible for us, as the G7, to really push Russian oil out of the global market.

I spoke to you first as a daughter of this community. Then I spoke to you as the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Now, I’d like you to help me to speak directly to the people of Ukraine.

Now is a consequential moment in the world and I think now is a moment when it is more important than ever for Canada to be very clear that we support Ukraine, to be very clear that Ukraine must be victorious, and that Putin must be defeated. To be very clear that we’ve supported Ukraine from the beginning. Let’s not forget: Canada has been training Ukrainian troops since 2015 with Operation UNIFIER. We are there today, and I really hope you will join me in sending the strongest possible message to Ukraine that we will be there in the future. They’re counting on us.

And so I do want to say, Canada recognizes that the fight in Ukraine is a fight between light and darkness. This is a fight between good and evil. This is a fight between democracy and dictatorship.

It is only Ukrainians who are putting their lives on the line, who are fighting and who are dying. But they are fighting for our democracy. They are fighting for the rules-based order that guarantees the sovereignty of every single country. And that is why we are so clear and so firm in standing with Ukraine today and in standing with Ukraine tomorrow and in standing with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Slava Ukraini!