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.”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. (ICE TORONTO)

Fonte notizia: https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/