Digging for victory: How Canadian potato farmers are supporting Ukraine

Lisa Raitt: Thank you for tuning in to The Raitt Stuff. I’m your host Lisa Raitt and in this podcast I’m going to share insights on current hot topics in the areas of public policy, politics and business, with some guests along the way. Welcome back to The Raitt Stuff. You know, the war in Ukraine is certainly something that’s still top of mind for many people. And just recently you saw the United States finally pass a major aid package. But I was reading the Globe and Mail a couple of weeks ago, and I noted that a former colleague and a current friend of mine was doing something remarkable. And he was making sure that not only are we saying we’re going to help build Ukraine back, but he was involved on the ground with supporting the economic growth in Ukraine. And that is the Honorable Wayne Easter, who is the former member of parliament from Malpec, Prince Edward Island. Wayne, when he was in government, was the Solicitor General for Canada. He was the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Agriculture. And when we were working together, he was the chair of the standing committee on finance. He also spent a decade as the National President of the National Farmers Union, and he’s currently the president of Razom Invest Canada, the company that we’re going to talk a little bit about today. Wayne also, during his time, maintained really constructive and deep relationships with cohorts on the other side of the border in the United States. He was the co-chair for the Canada-US Inter-Parliamentary Group, which held many meetings on both sides of the border between members of parliament, members of Congress, ensuring that that line of communication was open in case there were ever problems in the country to country relationship. Wayne, I’m delighted you could join us here today. Thanks for coming on The Raitt Stuff.

Wayne Easter: Pleasure to be here.

Lisa Raitt: So I was reading the Globe and Mail a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed this really large article about my friend, Wayne Easter, who was in Ukraine. The article said that you were helping Ukrainians with respect to planting and farming. Can you give us a little idea about what you’re doing?

Wayne Easter: Yes, I can. Really, we set up a little company, Razom Invest Canada for islanders, but how we got to that point, we attended in fact the same conference on Rebuild Ukraine as you were at in November 2022. And at that conference, we met quite a number of people, but the Prime Minister of Ukraine by video conference said that the economic front is as important as the military front to us in Ukraine. And Canadians need to be investing in Ukraine now. So I guess we took that kind of to heart. We met another individual from Manitoba who has a part ownership in two firms in Ukraine. He’s pumped a fair bit of money in there. And we decided, well, our expertise from PEI is potatoes. Maybe there’s things that we can do to help out on the economic front. We actually figured the war would be over within a year, which didn’t happen to be the case. But so we traveled to Ukraine in February of 2022, went to those farms, toured around, decided that we could work with a farm over there and grow a small acreage in year one to just get our feet in the ground, to find the opportunities and the obstacles and that’s what we did.  The difficult side was we had to bring in potato equipment from the Netherlands, seed potatoes from Scotland and harvesting equipment from the Netherlands. But we had a successful crop. We’re into it with a fair bit of money. And we certainly learned some lessons along the way.

Lisa Raitt: What’s the difference between growing in PEI and growing in Ukraine?

Wayne Easter: Well actually quite similar. One of the biggest differences of course is we got about 8 inches of topsoil here and they’ve got about 6 feet of topsoil in Ukraine. There’s quite a potato production in Ukraine but the quality of the potatoes in the grocery stores is just awful. They’re bruised, they’re cracked. When you wash them you’ll find that 8 out of 10 potatoes are just not the kind of quality they should be. Now part of that relates to not really growing them. It relates to handling and storage. And we’ve got a lot of expertise in this province in that end. So we think we can improve a lot on the potato production and do other things as well. Our bottom line, our initial thought was, you know, when we get over there and get home and get talking about it, you know, what Canada needs to really have over here is a Canadian Center of Excellence to create economy in both countries, trade both ways certainly, but innovation and expertise both ways. And that’s where we’d really like to get to. In fact, I got back three and a half weeks ago from Ukraine again, and we’re over trying to figure out what we do this year. Because certainly if we are going to stay, we’ve got the seed in place. We’re working with the managers in the farm now to get the crop in the ground, get the inputs together. What we’ll have to do this year is we have to build a better storage rather than renting a storage because it is so costly to rent proper storage there.

Lisa Raitt: What’s been the local reaction to you coming over with investment?

Wayne Easter: You know, the biggest joy on the farm is that there’s an agrologist on the farm, really good guy. I told him one day, Jakovic, if you’re going to keep digging a plant of potatoes out to see how well it’s doing, we’ll have none left by the time fall comes. But to see the joy in his face, this crop was growing well, proper inputs put on, looked after well. His smile and of satisfaction in terms of doing things right was something else. But on the ground in terms of the parliamentarians we’ve met over there, they would say to us, it’s absolutely great, it means so much to us to have you actually here. Not talking about us, but on the ground here trying to create economy and help out in Ukraine. All the people we meet are really overjoyed. The fact that you got these islanders over there on the ground working with them, spending a little bit too much of our own money for sure, but working with them to try and grow their economy and build relationships. We also took over a person from Ukraine last fall to show them operations on the island and how they work here as well.

Lisa Raitt: When you’re over there, do you have a sense that there’s a war ongoing?

Wayne Easter: Oh, absolutely. Last time I was over, we’re in the eastern end. So we’re in the Luzhany. We’re two and a half hours, two and hours and 20 minutes ahead of Kiev in the Luzhany area, not far from Chernobyl. And the last time I was there, there were 12 days, 17 air raid alerts. Where we are it’d be an air raid alert in the Kiev Oblast, so where the missiles were coming in might be two hours away. But one of the communities, Shenaviv, where we had a meeting one day and actually took some people out to lunch. That’s where 18 people were killed in a missile attack here recently. So you know the war is on but, look, if you’re in Kiev, you’d think you’re in downtown Toronto. Streets are full of traffic, restaurants are three-quarter full, lights go out in a grocery store when you’re in there with a blackout or because of an air raid alert, curfews on from 12 to 5. But the morale this time was much lower than it was last October because, you know, they’re running low on ammunition, there’s people, military folks getting killed, and civilians too. And every little community has a cemetery, a fresh grave, and a Ukrainian flag. So that tells you the story and the disappointment in the West, especially the United States, for not coming through months ago, they did last weekend finally, and thank goodness, but not coming through as everyone thought they would is really hurting morale.

Lisa Raitt: I think it’s amazing what you’re doing in Ukraine. A lot of people say they’re going to do it, but you went ahead and did it, Wayne. So congratulations to you and your partners. But you mentioned the US, and I would be remiss if I didn’t buttonhole you on what’s happening with the US politically, especially their domestic politics, because you were the co-chair of the inter-parliamentary group. What are you hearing from your former colleagues in the US? Because I know you’ve kept up your relationships with US-based officials. What are your views on what’s happening down there right now?

Wayne Easter: Well, I’ve certainly talked to them, to quite a number of them, quite a number of times in recent months, Senator Chuck Grassley, many others. And there’s disappointment in the two major parties, Democrats and the Republicans, on where they’re at with Ukraine, that they just can’t seem to get stuff through Congress. It’s not unusual for some people to be opposed to the spending or trying to tie their domestic problem at the southern border with aid to Ukraine in order to get it done. But there’s actually a lot of lives on the line in Ukraine as a result of this political infighting that’s happening in the United States. And it’s really, from what I can determine, it’s just straight politics. You should be able to work together. But they become so entrenched in their positions that they can’t cross that bridge. And then you got the Trump factor thrown in there as well. Everyone I talk to knows they should be doing better in global interest and in their own interest, but they just can’t seem to come together to get it done. Finally, on the weekend, they did relative to Ukraine and hopefully they can continue to do that. But the problem is it’s pure, absolute, ridiculous politics that I think is causing the greatest undermining and an embarrassment to the most powerful country in the world.

Lisa Raitt: Do you have any concerns about the Canada-US relationship?

Wayne Easter: Yes, I do. I think it’s solid. I mean, I was involved in the last negotiation on the phone right to the last couple of hours. And I will say this, Senator Chuck Grassley was a big help in terms of that. Supply management was the issue in that last couple of hours. Both parties have become more protectionist. And so that is something that I think we have to remain on top of as a country. Yes, you’ve got the agreement, but one of the problems with trade agreements, if there’s a dispute and you argue the dispute, it can be two and three years down the road before there’s a settlement in terms of that dispute. And by that time the damage is done. So I would say to all our own politicians in Ottawa of all governments and people in all parties, especially people in leadership positions, be on your toes, know what has to be argued and try and keep that Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement very firm.

Lisa Raitt: Do you see a difference between Biden remaining and Trump winning?

Wayne Easter: I think yes, there’s certainly a difference and I guess I’d put it this way. Trump is unpredictable, that’s obvious and so you don’t know which way he might go. Biden has a good relationship at the moment with Canada and I think that’ll remain, who’s ever in government. And I think Biden would be more likely to say, look, we have an agreement. Let’s abide by it.

Lisa Raitt: Wayne, it’s always a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for taking time. And once again, congratulations on everything you’re doing with Ukraine. You’re not just talking the talk, you’re walking the walk.

Wayne Easter: Thanks, all the best and the best we can do is build both economies better together and get this war behind us.

Lisa Raitt: Agreed. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much for tuning in. Now, if you have any questions or comments or even requests on topics to discuss, drop me a line at [email protected]. Your interactions actually will make this better. I’m your host, Lisa Raitt, and this has been The Raitt Stuff.

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