Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is imposing sanctions on 35 more Russians and issuing bonds that individuals can buy to support the Ukrainian government.
Trudeau says the group being sanctioned includes leaders with Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom and six energy sector entities.
The five-year Ukraine Sovereignty Bonds are to be offered to investors through Canadian banks and the money will be channelled directly to Ukraine through the International Monetary Fund.
The prime minister is in Winnipeg, where the Congress of Ukrainian Canadians is holding a three-day meeting.
He’s also likely to hear a request from the Manitoba government for more money to help Ukrainians who are fleeing the war.
Premier Heather Stefanson says Manitoba is happy to have welcomed almost 12,000 Ukrainians since the Russian invasion began last February.
But she says the province needs federal money to help pay for housing, health care, education and other needs of the new arrivals.
Stefanson says Manitoba has welcomed more than 10 per cent of all Ukrainians who have entered Canada and has less than four per cent of the country’s population.
“They’re not declaring them as refugees and giving them refugee status, and normally with that comes federal funding,” Stefanson said of the federal government in an interview Thursday.
“They do have a role here. They should have a role. And we have been in discussions with them, but that’s not going to stop us from doing what we’re doing (in supporting Ukrainians).”
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