No.
Evidence of meeting #33 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mail.
Evidence of meeting #33 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mail.
2:35 p.m.
President, Dryden Local, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, As an Individual
Well, then, why do we have to fall under that?
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
That's true, and that's where the sustainability explanation comes in. If management were to operate as a going concern, we've heard from people that the employees of Canada Post have more faith in the corporation than the management has, so if there were a change in thinking on the part of management, would you be willing to sit down, provide your input, and help Canada Post move forward?
2:35 p.m.
President, Dryden Local, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, As an Individual
I would love to, but there needs to be a change in management, because they're not listening. They haven't listened to us for—how many years?
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Fair enough.
We've heard about some creative solutions from some employees. One of them was postal banking. I know that there was a 2009 report that was presented and was redacted by the government, but do you have any thoughts on postal banking?
2:35 p.m.
President, Dryden Local, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, As an Individual
Considering that Vermilion Bay does not have a post office and their credit union closed a couple of years ago, that in Ignace the CIBC closed this summer, that Pickle Lake does not have a post office, and that up north they do not have post offices, it would be a perfect solution in term of helping all of those people do their daily banking.
One of the other things is that last year the Government of Canada said that they weren't going to be sending out cheques anymore, and not everybody has a bank account.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
You would think that this is a viable option. First of all, are there post offices in those communities?
2:35 p.m.
President, Dryden Local, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, As an Individual
There is a post office of some sort in every northern community.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Would they have some flexibility or the infrastructure in place to at least do minimal banking or cheques or whatever they do?
2:35 p.m.
President, Dryden Local, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, As an Individual
As far as I know, they all have computers. They all have what in Canada Post is called the RPS system. Shoppers uses it as well.
Why Shoppers is even here, I don't know, because they're not that far from the post office, and it seems sometimes that half the stuff that gets sent out gets returned because they did it wrong.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Mr. Scribilo, as a business person and as part of the chamber of commerce, you've been very satisfied with Canada Post. How would you come up with new business revenues for Canada Post? What are some of the products that you think it should offer to move forward and go into the 21st century? Have you any ideas?
2:35 p.m.
President, Kenora & District Chamber of Commerce
You're putting me on the spot.
I know they're into giftware and stuff today, but I don't think that's a real pusher for Canada Post. I think it's more of a convenience for people to go in and buy coins and giftware and stuff....
Honestly, I'm at a loss for words on what they could do.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Yes. Thank you very much.
We now go into our last two interventions, which will be five minutes each. We'll start with Mr. Brassard.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just want to pick up on something that was mentioned earlier with respect to pension liability.
I'm a guest at this committee and I'm here for a week. I was just confirming with Mr. McCauley that generally accepted accounting practices occur. One of them is looking at pension liabilities with respect to the potential of insolvency. That's an accepted practice that occurs all over the world.
One of the narratives we've been hearing regularly is with respect to the potential for a change in management. We were in Windsor yesterday, and Mr. Ken Lewenza, Jr., was there. He talked about the need for management and the union to work together to solve some of the issues with respect to Canada Post. Mr. Neegan, you talked about that, and about how you'd like to see a coming together, because at the end of the day, it's the end customer who's important here.
This question is for all of you. Do you subscribe to the very thing Mr. Lewenza spoke about yesterday, in the way you do business with your employees, in terms of this collaboration? Ultimately there has to be a decision-maker, but employees generally have good ideas. Working with management and coming together is very important. Would you subscribe to that?
2:40 p.m.
Owner, Norwest Printing and Publishing Group
One thing I do have to make a point of mentioning, as Mary did before, is the local communities. In Ignace they lost a CIBC. In Balmertown, which is by Red Lake, the CIBC closed in early 2000. Basically what's happening with these communities is that the labour force is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. It affects me in that one less person in the community means less revenue for me as far as selling advertising and goods and services is concerned. That is very important.
I must stress the importance of corporate responsibility to the communities you service. For example, I just heard this week that the Rainy River Record actually closed after 90 years or something like that. Last August The Northern Sun in Red Lake closed its doors. I purchased it. It's not a great revenue generator for me, but I love community newspapers. I really do. I believe they are part of the community. When you find a solution, you have to take that into consideration as well.
Canada Post is part of all these communities. It is one of the oldest institutions in Canada. I read the material in terms of the future of Canada Post; I don't think that should even be a question. I think Canada Post should always be Canada Post. Business or economic reasons aside, I think Canada Post is an essential service for all of Canada. It shouldn't be something that would go by the wayside.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Mary, in the time we have left, I'd like to hear your comments on this, please.
2:40 p.m.
President, Dryden Local, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, As an Individual
I agree with David. We are an essential service. We are the only ones who go everywhere. If you don't think so, come and see. On any day, we have FedEx parcels that have been shipped through Canada Post. Canpar, UPS, Purolator—we take them all. We're the only ones who do go everywhere.
In order for us to go everywhere, we need to be self-sufficient, according to the Canada Post act, but does that mean we have to make a 10% revenue, or should we be making enough money that we can reinvest and make things better for us?
Yes, we do sell things. In fact, if you want, I have a hockey poster signed by Guy Lafleur. It's only $179.95 plus tax. I just got it out yesterday. It's on the wall. Sidney Crosby is $299.95 and Darryl Sittler is $179.95. Those three picture frames are gorgeously done. Unfortunately, I could only get the three. The other three are only through direct shipping. You pay with a credit card and they ship it to your house, so you need door-to-door delivery.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
Our last intervention comes from Mr. Whalen.
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you so much for coming. It's really wonderful. I love to hear about your buying the community newspapers, Mr. Neegan. Organizations like yours that help build communities deserve our support, and I think corporations like Canada Post, which helps preserve and build communities and is part of a national infrastructure, need support.
What we're trying to figure out is what level of support and what type of support people need. Critical to that is what type of future lines of business we should be in. Should we be in a service-contracting phase or a service-expansion phase? What does the market require?
My first question is to you, Mr. Neegan. You're also in a declining market share business. Would you benefit from Canada Post doing more door-to-door delivery or more local sorting, or do you feel that you've already accommodated for the fact that they don't, and therefore it's heads or tails for you as to whether or not the service is now expanded?
2:45 p.m.
Owner, Norwest Printing and Publishing Group
We're in the phase of adapting to market conditions. What that means for us is that we will adapt to any curve balls that are thrown at us, but in terms of service delivery—in terms of the sorting, for example—we need faster service to our clientele. That is something that would help our business.
In terms of service deliveries to our communities, with our newspapers for example, a faster service would be.... We want to do business with Canada Post. That's the bottom line. Right now that's our best option, because it's something we've utilized and it's also historically what the old Alex Wilson Coldstream utilized for the last...since the 1940s.
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you.
Mr. Scribilo, in preparing for the meeting, I was skimming through the Canada Post annual report, and they refer to all Canadians as their customers. I thought about it for a second. I thought, when I'm at work as an MP, I'm a customer of Canada Post, but when I'm home, I'm really the product that they sell. Access to me is the product that Canada Post is selling, so I'm really their product.
You represent business people and the chamber of commerce. Do you feel that your members would benefit from an expanded, quicker service? You say you're satisfied, but do you think that it's time to expand and improve Canada Post service? Do you think it's fine the way it is? Do you think we need to keep scaling it back in order to save money so that it can be financially self-sufficient?
Those are three options on the table.
2:45 p.m.
President, Kenora & District Chamber of Commerce
A true Canadian deals with what's given to him or her. That's part of our issue. If there's a possibility on the business side to have expanded, quicker service... We're dealing with everybody today—Internet, Netflix, and all the other things. It aligns with Canada Post. If a service were offered, people would probably buy it. It should go to the businesses to ask, “What do you want? What's your expectation?”
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
I'm asking you what your businesses are saying. Do you think they would take advantage of a higher level of service?
2:45 p.m.
President, Kenora & District Chamber of Commerce
I think some would. As Mr. Neegan said, if there's a demand for next-day service, as in telecommunications, people will buy that service as long as it has a positive effect on their business. If they're selling something or getting a product to market...you have to realize that in these small communities we're used to waiting three to five days to get something—