Government Operations committee  I'll tell you how it differs from franchises. It's supported by the big picture. It's supported by the corporation. There's a network. It's part of that network. When we did a study, the difference was that franchises aren't supported very well by the corporation. What we often saw when we studied all those communities that had a post office was that it closed, they put in a franchise, and because that franchise wasn't supported, it wasn't sustainable.

Government Operations committee  It all depends on the community. If the community has 100 people and the community is good with that and it works for that community and the mayor doesn't object, then if that works, it works. Every community is unique.

Government Operations committee  Yes, we looked at indexing as an option.

Government Operations committee  That's a really fair question. We have 1,531 group post offices. That means that the postmaster provides the premises. Often they will retrofit their home to have a post office in it, or it will be in the garage, but there are a lot more criteria now around it to make it suitable.

Government Operations committee  Yes, and in Moose Factory.

Government Operations committee  Yes, he would come to the community. People are travelling such great distances now to get to a bank. For some folks it's four hours, for others it's a two-and-a-half-hour drive, a six-hour boat ride, or a three-hour Ski-Doo ride, so the bank manager would come. It was easier for one person to be on the road.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  Take that up with my husband.

Government Operations committee  I worked Saturdays for 17 years, and I loved it. I got out of housework. Sorry, I had to go there. It was the standing joke in the house. I had three young sons, and it was sometimes fun to leave and have that break. With that said, our folks were devastated when they lost their Saturday hours and Saturday hours of service, and again that was in line with promoting franchise.

Government Operations committee  I met with the corporation last week at our semi-annual meeting. Mr. Chopra was referring to those meetings earlier today, and I had asked if the task force was given the unredacted study of the postal banking study that the corporation did. We were told that the experts that the task force was using were given the unredacted study.

Government Operations committee  As I was mentioning, our hours have been drastically reduced, and that's why you see those post offices that are only open three hours a day. That happened in 2013 under the five-point action plan. There was a flood of hour cuts that went across the country, 25%. However, with that said, our members would be really excited about that, because right now they're doing basic banking anyway to a certain extent.

Government Operations committee  They had the bank there.

Government Operations committee  Right now, we have security in the post office. What that looks like was they'd have the wicket for the banking on one section, and the wicket for the postal services on the other section. All the postal workers in the post office were trained.

Government Operations committee  I wasn't too far down.

Government Operations committee  My name is Brenda McAuley. I'm a postmaster. I've worked in a post office for 18 years. With me today is my co-worker, Daniel Maheux, who is presently the vice-president of the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association. Daniel is a postmaster, as well. We represent our members who work in 3,260 rural post offices across Canada.