Supporting Ukraine Part of Canada’s Inflation-Fighting Strategy, Says Finance Minister Freeland

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland takes part in the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency surrounding the government's use of the Emergencies Act in February, in Ottawa on June 14, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Ensuring Russia loses its war against Ukraine is part of Canada’s plan to address high levels of inflation, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday.

“I absolutely do believe that an important part of Canada’s inflation fighting strategy has to be to support Ukraine, and to ensure that Ukraine does win in the war against Vladimir Putin,” Freeland told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

“I think we all understand the chief driver of those elevated energy prices is Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.”

Freeland was testifying on Bill C-30, the Liberal government’s plan to provide GST rebates to a portion of Canadians to help with the cost of living.

Her comments on Ukraine came after Liberal MP Yvan Baker used his questioning time in committee to plea for that country and thank Freeland for her support for “the people of Ukraine as they fight Russia’s genocidal war.”

Baker, who has a business background, said he believed the war to be a “key reason” for higher food and fuel prices.

“So Ukrainians are not just fighting for themselves, they’re also fighting for us,” Baker said.

“In my view, if we want to stop inflation, Ukraine needs to win the war decisively,” he said. He specified this would mean retaking Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Donbass, which is currently disputed.

‘Putin’s Price Hike’

This idea that Putin is responsible for inflation has also been shared by the Biden administration south of the border.

It has called Russia’s invasion the “biggest single driver of inflation” and used the phrase “Putin’s price hike” to address the rising prices.

Oil prices had been steadily climbing since the spring of 2020 and did spike after the invasion, but they have been decreasing since late spring 2022.

“It’s not the war in Ukraine. It’s really domestically caused constraint on the supply side,” Ross McKitrick, a professor of economics at the University of Guelph in Ontario, previously told The Epoch Times.

Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, was already entrenched before Feb. 24 when Russia invaded. Statistics Canada noted on Feb. 16 that shelter costs in January were rising at the fastest pace since 1990.

While saying that Ukraine winning the war is important to deal with inflation, Freeland also acknowledged that policies implemented by governments during the pandemic played a role in generating inflation.

“Even absent Vladimir Putin’s illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine, the recovery from the COVID recession was going to be challenging. We did the unprecedented thing of shutting down the economy, and the large industrialized economies did the same thing,” said Freeland.

“And we also did the unprecedented thing of providing an economic backstop, and so unwinding that was never going to be smooth,” she added.