OTTAWA, May 1 (Reuters) - Canadian legislators on

Wednesday agreed to hold hearings into how major aerospace

companies were granted exemptions from the country's sanctions

on Russian titanium.

Reuters reported last week that Airbus, Bombardier

and Safran had all been allowed to sidestep

sanctions imposed on Russia's state-backed VSMPO-AVISMA.

Canada is the first Western government to ban Russian

supplies of the strategic metal as part of a package to mark the

second anniversary of Russia's Ukraine invasion in February.

The 12-person foreign affairs committee of the House of

Commons elected chamber said it would call the country's

Minister of Foreign Affairs and other unspecified witnesses,

after a proposal to have representatives of Bombardier and

Airbus testify failed.

The hearings are part of a study of waivers granting the use

of Russian titanium in Canadian aerospace manufacturing.

"We have heard that this is particularly egregious because

Ukraine has titanium that they could use and instead we have

waived the sanction on Russian titanium," said opposition NDP

foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson who pressed for the

study.

"So I think it is very important that we understand why the

government made this decision."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly last week

defended the waiver decisions and said jobs in Canada had been

the decisive factor.