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Canada has the power (generators) to help beat Russia · Kvetch & Release

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  There's a story that I've been wanting to discuss for a little bit. I
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  find it to be incredibly interesting. Ukraine has been dealing with crippling blackouts after
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  Russia has devastated the electrical grid of the country earlier this year. Energy shortages
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  are expected to persist deep into winter, and Canada is actually able to help
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  out with this. How well power generators are actually the answer. Joining me
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  right now to discuss is Adam Zevo, who is a National Post columnist who
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  spends quite a bunch of time in Ukraine. We've spoken with him on the
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  show about Ukraine before. Adam, good morning, how are you doing today?
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  I'm good. Good morning, Dans for having me on the show.
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  Absolutely, thank you so much for joining you know, I thought this one
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  was really interesting because we've spoken before about other issues related to Ukraine and the
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  ongoing invasion of Russia and the war, and it got difficult sometimes because scheduling
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  to speak with you you became difficult. Sometimes we'd be having a phone call
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  or even recording and the line would just drop and you'd be gone for you
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  know, five, ten, fifteen minutes, And the reason was because of
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  these power outages. Yeah, I mean, so Russia started bombing Ukraine's electrical
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  instructure again in March and April because the Republicans blocked weapons shipments to Ukraine and
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  as a result, the air defenses became strained, you know, they ran
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  out of ammunition. So I mean the Russians took advantage of that and managed
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  to destroy almost half of Ukraine's electrical infrastructure, or rather generating infrastructure, and
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  as a result of that, Ukrainians are experiencing persistent and crippling blackouts that last
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  anywhere from you know, maybe nine twelve fifteen hours a day. When we
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  do get power, it's usually in about three hour blocks, and it's a
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  little bit unpredictable when those blocks happen. And when there's no power, there's
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  no Wi Fi. Cellular data claws to a halt because many of the cellular
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  towers aren't working and everyone is switching to data, and so when we try
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  to speak. Previously, I would basically go out into a park or you
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  know, on the streets, you know, move my phone wherever, get
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  like one bar is signal, call you, and then would pretty much cut
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  out halfway through any conversation. It's challenging for me but of course it's much
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  more challenging for Ukrainians who have to live this every single day, day after
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  day, week after week, month after month. They're exhausted. And so
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  we know that, you know, hospitals and train stations, critical infrastructure is
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  exempt from these cuts. But it's it's it's your average person and how they
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  deal with it, Like what is morale? Like, I mean, living
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  through a war is one thing, but you know, losing access to your
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  electricity of course, you know, people expect that to come with war,
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  but how is morale dealing with these cuts? Well, because the Ukrainians experienced
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  power cuts in the winter of twenty twenty to twenty twenty three, they're somewhat
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  used to this. So most small businesses do have power generators. And it's
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  funny, you know, I joke with my friends there the sound of Ukrainian
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  bird is the roar of intellectual generator. The sense diesel is everywhere in the
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  air. So restaurants do function, cafes do function to a certain degree,
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  but these generators can be unreliable and so they'll cut out and food will spoil,
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  lights will shut off. It can be difficult, especially if people are
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  doing remote work. Which is important to remember because many Ukrainians do work in
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  it and try to provide services to clients abroad. Morale is I guess it's
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  not as good as it used to be. Obviously, after two years of
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  WOAR, it's hard to stay resilient. People are trying to live a normal
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  life. But over time these kinds of difficulties do get to them. And
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  I know that Canada has committed twenty million dollars towards helping Ukraine replace damaged energy
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  equipment and infrastructure. I mean, is twenty million dollars a lot of money?
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  Like what more could be done? What is it that you're hoping to
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  see here? If you had you know the power of the legislative agenda?
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  I mean, twenty million dollars sounds like a lot, but when you put
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  into context, we give out about seven to eight billion dollars in international development
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  every single year. So twenty million dollars for something so critical with one of
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  our most important allies was facing off against one of our most important geopolitical competitors
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  is a drop in a bucket. Not even that. Now, One way
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  we could help is that, yes, many businesses have generators, but there
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  are still many holes in that system, and so I think that we should
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  be investing into sending generators or lending generators to Ukraine that provides immediate assistance and
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  helps, for example, provide more charging stations, more reliable electricity for nursing
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  homes, for libraries, for schools to help them get by during this difficult
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  time. And I think that there's a way that we can do this that
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  ensures the money that we spent on these generators gets recycled back into our economy
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  and supports Canadian manufacturing jobs. There is an issue, though, because we've
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  got higher standards for our our power generators, don't we Yeah. So here's
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  the thing is that starting around twenty eighteen, we started having higher emission standards
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  for our more complicated diesel generators, and as a result, the diesel generators
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  that we produce in this country tend to be relatively expensive and relatively complicated,
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  and as a result, it's difficult to maintain them. In less developed markets,
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  you don't have to specialized labor, you don't have the specialized parts.
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  So when I spoke with domestic manufacturers in Canada, they said that yes,
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  they would be able to produce lower quality like I guess, less complex generators
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  in accordance to the pre twenty eighteen standards. By building that production capacity would
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  take about six months and would require an order of at least a few million
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  dollars. That being said, smaller generators, which rely predominant on gasoline,
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  would be available almost immediately. So we could start with these smaller generators and
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  try to find international generators for the like larger generators for Ukraine, and then
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  eventually switch to just domestic production. Well, and you say that this could
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  be a win win scenario. We'd be able to bolster and reinforce an ally
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  our own national security. We've talked about that before. Being able to help
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  Ukraine helps to keep Russia at bay, allows for us to further build up,
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  you know, the Arctic that we have in our strategies there. But
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  also, of course, I mean this could be a brand new domestic industry
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  to a certain extent. Well, yeah, One thing that is very underappreciated
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  when it comes to ah to Ukraine is how, in many cases we spend
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  this money in our own country. In the United States, that's especially because
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  they have such a big manufacturing capacity. But in Canada, let's say we
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  buy electrical generators. We use that to build our own manufacturing capacity, which
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  I think is important because generators are a critical resource and emergency commodity that we
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  could need in the future, and currently we are very reliant on imports.
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  I think it would be a good idea to bolster our domestic manufacturing capacity and
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  build jobs for Canadians through this kind of international aid. And again, for
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  those who didn't get a chance to listen to us the last time that we
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  talked, why is it a positive thing for us to go and help Ukraine
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  and how does that help us against You know, I guess we could still
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  call it the relatively existential threat of Russia and their encroachment globally. Well,
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  first of all, if we want to if we want to enjoy the protection
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  of NATO, which is becoming more important as China become more assertive, we
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  have to do our part in the alliance and we have to ensure this stability
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  in Eastern Europe. At the same time, our main security vulnerability right now
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  is our North. We have very little power in the North, and as
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  global warming opens up value shipping channels there, we're going to see Russia and
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  shine it together militarize the Arctic agent Ocean and enroach in those channels and enroach
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  in our sovereignty there so crippling Russia by working with the Ukrainians buy us time
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  to build up our military infrastructure on our northern borders to help secure Artic sovereignty
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  for the next generation. A dollar spent today saves US ten dollars in the
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  future. It'd be a mess if I didn't get your take on it.
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  Considering the breaking news that we had out of the US yesterday with President Biden
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  stepping down, I just I would love what your take is about. What
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  do you think happens moving forward with a president putin and what looks to be
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  you know, whether it be a re elected Donald Trump or potentially an elected
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  vice president Kamala Harris becoming president. How do you think things unfold moving forward
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  regardless. I mean, I had a sly of relief when I saw that
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  slide and dropped out. I mean, I'm a conservative in Canada, but
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  I'm pretty much like a corporate Democrat in the United States. I hope that
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  Kamala Harris gets re elected because I think that would be better for international security.
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  When I see Trump saying that we should abandon Ukraine and that Taiwan should
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  pay for its protection from the United States. I see in that who does
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  the Internet and it doesn't understand national alliances and treat it its military like a
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  mercenary rather than a real security partner. Well, I want to thank you
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  so much for your time today, Adam very much appreciate it and your insight
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  that you provide. Well, thank you for having me on the show again.
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  All the best. Adam Zevo is a columnist with the National Post.
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  You can read his column Canada has the power generators to help beat Russia