Premier, Regina mayor and councillor say Evraz workers unlikely to be disrupted by oligarch sanctions

Canada has announced another round of sanctions against Russia, including high-profile oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has a large stake in Evraz, a steel company that is one of the largest single employers in Regina.

In total, five top business leaders were added on Friday to the list of those deemed to be enabling President Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced the new penalties on the last day of his European trip, said the Russian elites will be prevented from doing business in Canada and their assets will be frozen.

Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club in the United Kingdom, also holds a 28 per cent stake in Evraz, the steel company that has operations in Western Canada, including Regina. 

Trudeau said the federal government has been mindful of the potential impact, but remains confident there will be no impact on the 1,700 people who work for Evraz in Regina.

"The sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs like Abramovich are directed at them so that they cannot profit or benefit from economic activities in Canada — or the hard work of Canadians working in companies that they have investments in," Trudeau said in Warsaw, before boarding a flight home.

On Friday, CBC asked Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to comment on the sanctions on Abramovich.

"In light of the new sanctions announced today, our government has been in contact with the federal government to ensure there are no local impacts to operations or employment at the Evraz Regina site," said Moe in a statement.

"We have been assured these sanctions will not negatively impact the mill, and we will continue to engage with the federal government to ensure that continues to be the case."

Mayor says Regina residents are concerned

Prior to the Canadian sanctions on Abramovich, Regina Mayor Sandra Masters spoke with CBC's The House about what sanctions could mean for Evraz Steel workers in her city.

"A disruption in the contracts or any sanctions would have a significant impact on our workforce here," she said. 

Masters said that Abramovich divesting himself from Evraz would be the best outcome.

"That is actually the way out of this in terms of the balance between needing to support Ukraine and accepting those sanctions and protecting the employment and the contracts and the livelihood of those workers."

Masters said she has heard from numerous Regina residents who are concerned about potential repercussions for the workers. But she said they also gave her a sense that they do not support Russian oligarchs or Russia itself. 

"Ultimately, in some respects, it could be up to the consumers. And so any contracts that Evraz Steel has ... contracts could be cancelled, which would then impact, again, potentially the workers from the other side of things."

Masters said the globalization of the economy and the supply chain issues residents are experiencing because of the pandemic should make people think about how goods are resourced. 

"This is another perfect example of when we open up to globalization, there's repercussions or consequences to be paid for investments from potential aggressor nations," said Masters.

However, she said Regina's economy has a bright future and that should ease people's minds.

"We've had a lot of really great economic announcements here in terms of [agriculture] and value added [agriculture] between canola crush plants and bio-diesel fuels using canola. We're hopeful that if Evraz Steel comes under a crunch, that there'll be a workforce transition into a labour shortage, frankly, in terms of the needs on other projects." 

Regina city councillor says Evraz should be under public ownership

City councillor and business professor Andrew Stevens said expropriating Evraz Steel and putting its resources under public ownership would be the most meaningful response on behalf of the Canadian government. 

"Given that the Canadian government is now in the business of owning pipelines, I don't think it's all that far fetched to put us in the business of producing steel as well," Stevens said.

Stevens said he doubts things will go that far. 

"Unless there was evidence that somehow the product of Evraz here in Regina or elsewhere in Canada were somehow being contributed to the invasion … for instance, producing steel that is somehow part of the Russian war effort, I don't see any reason at this juncture to believe that the workers by themselves would be at risk."

Premier Moe and United Steelworkers have both said recently that Regina Evraz products are strictly shared in North America.

However, Andrews does not share the same optimism as Masters concerning a possible transfer of labour if the sanctions do end up negatively impacting steel workers. 

"My concern is you don't just take someone from a steel plant doing a range of jobs and then just plug them into the kind of work that's going to be required of those new proposed facilities," Stevens said.

"We're not going to see shovels in the ground for some time … if these sanctions take effect immediately and by some measure we're seeing the displacement of workers, they'll be unemployed today and the promise of future development will be, I suspect, little comfort to workers who are put out of work now."

CBC reached out to United Steelworkers and Evraz, but did not receive responses.