Prince Edward County has taken another step towards establishing a friendship with the Ukrainian city of Krasyliv.
During Thursday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, council members received a report from staff on the practises for establishing friendship agreements in general, and how to proceed with establishing the relationship with Krasyliv in particular.
Krasyliv is a rural community in central Ukraine, about halfway between the capital city of Kyiv and the major western city of Lviv. It consists of several small settled areas with rural space between them, similar to Prince Edward County.
The push to establish a friendship arrangement began after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then Mayor Steve Ferguson has written to the mayor of Krasyliv, Nila Ostrovska, who wrote back expressing interest in establishing the friendship arrangement.
The staff report describes friendship arrangements as being informal, mutually beneficial partnerships between communities.
A policy was outlined in the report on how to establish a friendship arrangement, and a second policy was proposed for establishing the responsibilities of a Friendship City Working Group. The working group would be responsible for managing the arrangement, including making recommendations to council about the relationship, advising staff and council on the contents of the agreement, and coordinating activities related to implementing the agreement.
Under the proposed guidelines, the next step in forming a friendship relationship with Krasyliv will be recruiting members for the working group.
Councillor Bill Roberts was happy to see progress in the friendship arrangement process.
“When some of us began this conversation, to make it more important than just temporarily raising a flag on a pole for a few weeks or a couple of months, there was some resistance,” said Councillor Roberts
The motion was approved unanimously by the committee, and referred to council for final approval.
