Mr. Chair, I thank the member for his comments, because he and I share a common heritage. My mother was actually born about 30 miles from the eastern Ukraine border, so I understand his passion for supporting Ukraine.
Economic support is as important as the support we are providing in terms of non lethal military assistance and the training we have recently agreed to undertake in Ukraine.
The economic dimension of this relationship between Canada and Ukraine cannot be underestimated. We have somewhere in the order of 1.2 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, many of whom are business people and many of whom are prepared to engage economically with Ukraine.
When I was there on my two trade missions, I was accompanied by quite a number of Canadian companies whose owners had Ukrainian heritage, and they were impressing upon us the importance of getting a trade agreement in place, of removing some of the trade barriers, and of removing some of the investment barriers and the lack of transparency in the economy.
I am absolutely confident that if we do this right, Canada can play a major role in allowing Ukraine's economy to recover.