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Bill 223 Ukrainian Heritage Month Act.

 On Tuesday May 17, I spoke in the Manitoba Legislature on Bill 223, Ukrainian Heritage Month Act, at third reading.  My comments are below: 

Bill 223 Ukrainian Heritage Month Act  

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, Manitoba Liberals, we support this bill, and we look forward to September being a time to recog­nize, to celebrate and to honour Ukraine and the con­tri­bu­tion of people who have come from Ukraine.

      And there are many–I think about 180,000 in Manitoba. And people from Ukraine are living and working all over Manitoba; they are living and working in all variety of occupations, public and private. They are making an in­cred­ible con­tri­bu­tion to our province. Ukraine is a part of who we are in Manitoba, and we want to celebrate that and recog­nize it.

      At the same time, we want to recog­nize the dif­fi­cul­ties that Ukraine has been through–the in­cred­ible struggles at the time of the Holodomor, the in­cred­ible struggles that are happening right now with the war between Ukraine and Russia. It is a tumultuous time at the moment. We are doing every­thing that we can as individuals, as a Province, as a country, to support Ukraine and Ukrainian people.

      We look forward to receiving many Ukrainians shortly coming, and we welcome them as new refugees and hope they will decide to stay in Manitoba. But we–it hurts, because we don't want to be, you know, taking people who would make a con­tri­bu­tion in Ukraine. We want to make sure that the fun­da­mental continuance of Ukraine as a country is there, and we are supporting that all the way.

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