Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy dismissed the importance of the first grain export shipment from his country since Russia invaded, saying it was carrying a fraction of the crop Kyiv must sell to help salvage its shattered economy.
His downbeat comments, via video to students in Australia on Wednesday, came as an inspection of the ship was completed in Turkey before it continued to its final destination in Lebanon under a deal aimed at easing a global food crisis.
The ship, Razoni, departed from Ukraine’s Odesa port on the Black Sea early on Monday, carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn to Lebanon’s Tripoli. It followed a UN-brokered grain and fertilizer export agreement between Moscow and Kyiv last month — a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a drawn-out war of attrition.
But Zelenskyy, speaking via an interpreter, said more time was needed to see whether other grain shipments would follow.
WATCH | Ukraine grain ship steams toward Lebanon after Istanbul inspection:
Ukraine grain ship steams toward Lebanon after Istanbul inspection
12 hours ago
Duration 0:39
The first grain ship to leave Ukraine since the war began cleared a multi-party inspection on Wednesday in Istanbul and then pushed on through the Bosphorus Strait, headed for Lebanon.
“Just recently, thanks to the UN in partnership with Turkey, we had a first ship with the delivery of grain, but it’s still nothing. But we hope it’s a tendency that will continue,” he told the students.
He said Ukraine had to export a minimum 10 million tonnes of grain to urgently help bring down its budget deficit, which was running at $5 billion US a month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears on a screen at the Australian National University in Canberra as it hosted his online discussion with 21 universities in the country on Wednesday. (Tracey Nearmy/Australian National University/The Associated Press)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the first grain shipment but also said it was “only a first step.”
A senior Turkish official said three ships could leave Ukrainian ports daily after the Razoni’s departure, while Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said 17 more ships had been loaded with agricultural produce and were waiting to set sail.
War ‘almost killing the economy’
Known as Europe’s breadbasket, Ukraine hopes to export 20 million tonnes of grain held in silos and 40 million tonnes from the harvest now underway, initially from Odesa and nearby Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk.
“The war … is almost killing the economy. It’s in a coma,” Zelenskyy added. “Russia’s blocking of the ports is a great loss for the economy.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly warned that Moscow may try to obstruct exports despite signing up to last month’s deal.
Russia, which blockaded Ukraine’s ports after beginning on Feb. 24 what it called “a special military operation,” has said it wants to see more done to facilitate the exports of its own grain and fertilizers. But it has hailed the departure of the first grain ship from Ukraine as positive.
It has denied responsibility for the food crisis, saying sanctions by the West, which regards the war as an unprovoked imperial-style Russian land grab, have slowed Ukraine’s exports.
The exports from Ukraine, one of the world’s top grain producers, are intended to ease price rises and shortages, with famine looming in some parts of the world.
Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the grain deal might offer a way forward out of conflict.
“The good news is that the Kremlin wants a negotiated solution,” Schroeder told the German publication Stern weekly and broadcasters RTL/ntv on Wednesday, adding he had met Putin in Moscow last week.
“A first success is the grain deal, perhaps that can be slowly expanded to a ceasefire.”
Supermarket, other businesses hit in Mykolaiv
Meanwhile, Russian forces kept up their bombardment of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, shelling it on Tuesday night and before dawn on Wednesday, said governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitaliy Kim.
WATCH | People salvaging what remains after strikes in Mykolaiv:
Residents salvaging what remains after strikes in Mykolaiv, Ukraine
6 hours ago
Duration 0:40
Explosions destroyed a supermarket and residential building in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, leaving locals to pick through the rubble of what’s left of their homes. The city’s mayor claimed the strikes were from Russia.
The shelling damaged a pier, an industrial enterprise, residential buildings, a garage co-operative, a supermarket and a pharmacy, Kim said.
Mykolaiv is a southern port city on the Black Sea. The Russians said in April they wanted control over not just eastern, but southern Ukraine, cutting off the country from its Black Sea coast and creating a possible land corridor to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria.
The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, told The Associated Press that 131 civilians, including a child, have died so far in the city from Russian rocket and artillery shelling and 590 others were seriously injured, including seven children.
OTTAWA – The federal government is expected to boost the minimum hourly wage that must be paid to temporary foreign workers in the high-wage stream as a way to encourage employers to hire more Canadian staff.
Under the current program’s high-wage labour market impact assessment (LMIA) stream, an employer must pay at least the median income in their province to qualify for a permit. A government official, who The Canadian Press is not naming because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the change, said Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault will announce Tuesday that the threshold will increase to 20 per cent above the provincial median hourly wage.
The change is scheduled to come into force on Nov. 8.
As with previous changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program, the government’s goal is to encourage employers to hire more Canadian workers. The Liberal government has faced criticism for increasing the number of temporary residents allowed into Canada, which many have linked to housing shortages and a higher cost of living.
The program has also come under fire for allegations of mistreatment of workers.
A LMIA is required for an employer to hire a temporary foreign worker, and is used to demonstrate there aren’t enough Canadian workers to fill the positions they are filling.
In Ontario, the median hourly wage is $28.39 for the high-wage bracket, so once the change takes effect an employer will need to pay at least $34.07 per hour.
The government official estimates this change will affect up to 34,000 workers under the LMIA high-wage stream. Existing work permits will not be affected, but the official said the planned change will affect their renewals.
According to public data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 183,820 temporary foreign worker permits became effective in 2023. That was up from 98,025 in 2019 — an 88 per cent increase.
The upcoming change is the latest in a series of moves to tighten eligibility rules in order to limit temporary residents, including international students and foreign workers. Those changes include imposing caps on the percentage of low-wage foreign workers in some sectors and ending permits in metropolitan areas with high unemployment rates.
Temporary foreign workers in the agriculture sector are not affected by past rule changes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
