Government Operations committee  It's probably not something you may want to hear, but in our communities.... I believe Greg touched on it already. He has to have a second job, because we, as management, get paid next to nothing. I don't know if that's—

Government Operations committee  Not quite. I know we don't, and I'm pretty sure Dryden doesn't. Our workers get paid more than we do, which you know going in. Does that attract good people, for the most part, in municipalities? I believe it does, because they are there because they want to make their municipalities better.

Government Operations committee  I may go out on a limb on here and try to speak for northwestern Ontario, but I certainly speak for my community. The simple fact is that if you're going to be a dog, you'll find a stick. People will always find something to complain about, no matter what you do. I think the biggest thing that would affect our folks would be a dramatic—and I mean dramatic—cut in hours.

Government Operations committee  If you're in a community that has two banks, would another one help a lot? Probably not, but for sure it would if you were in an area where they have nothing. For the longest time the folks in Ear Falls didn't have a bank. They were 45 miles away. They'd drive into Red Lake for their banking.

Government Operations committee  As Mickey Mantle said following Casey Stengel at the Kefauver hearings, I agree.

Government Operations committee  In our community, they recently changed sorting to Thunder Bay, and probably in yours as well. I think all of ours in the northwest went to Thunder Bay because someone bought a fancy new machine, and we had to justify buying a machine. I had in my brief that it was three days, but when I went back and checked, we were told we would still get local delivery in two days.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  No, ours are all corporate, and the mailboxes are in Cochenour and McKenzie Island, two small communities.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  Again, I would suspect that when you talk about “half”, you're talking mostly about delivery. That doesn't affect us, because we pick it up at the post office. We get a little card in our mailbox that says we have a parcel, we talk to the nice lady at the counter, and she gets the parcel for us.

Government Operations committee  For businesses, it may be a different situation. They may need something tomorrow, but that's not always possible.

Government Operations committee  I certainly would. Just so you know, I'm saying this while my brother-in-law and my nephew are both mail carriers. We've had some pretty severe discussions about that.

Government Operations committee  In our municipalities, I believe there are eight. We don't have door-to-door delivery. It's all picked up at the post office.

Government Operations committee  There are just under 5,000 in total.