This year marks 35 years since Saskatoon and Chernivtsi, Ukraine became sister cities. The partnership started in 1991, the year Ukraine became independent. It made sense then and still does. Chernivtsi is the historic heart of Bukovyna, where many of the Ukrainian families who homesteaded in Saskatchewan came from. The two cities are close in size, and both are university towns with deep roots in business, arts, and culture.
For a number of years, students from the bilingual Ukrainian program at E.D. Feehan travelled to Chernivtsi on exchange and stayed with local families. When the full-scale invasion began in 2022, Chernivtsi took in more than 100,000 displaced people, and Saskatoon answered the call for help. Our firefighters gathered equipment and supplies, and a community luncheon raised $250,000 for aid.
In July, I was honoured to host a delegation from Chernivtsi at City Hall, and we talked about how easily a sister city relationship can fade without steady work. Over the past few months I’ve been in touch with a member of Council there about how to strengthen it. We’re looking at what a renewed exchange could involve, whether that’s students, municipal staff, businesses, or cultural groups.
To start, we’ve agreed to give each other regular updates to share at our respective council meetings, and I gave the first one at Council this week. I’m looking forward to more of these conversations, and I hope we’ll have chances to visit each other down the road.
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