Government Operations Committee on June 22nd, 2006

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Thank you.

Mr. Temelkovski, go ahead, please.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Mr. Temelkovski, we're down to five minutes, starting with you now.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I've read some of the reports of your previous meetings and appearances here, Ms. Greene, and you mentioned in one of your last submissions when you appeared in front of the committee that you would make a significant effort to maintain an equitable service level throughout the post office network, including rural communities.

Would you say that's still the goal? And are we winning the battle or are we losing the battle?

[Moya Greene]

It definitely is the goal. We are committed to service to all Canadians, and I feel that commitment more strongly today than even when I started. In rural Canada, as you know, Mr. Temelkovski, we have 4,100 rural post offices and dealerships. There is a complete moratorium on the closure of rural post offices, which I completely and fully respect. But in a network of that size, as you know, things happen. We have had a couple of cases this year where rural post offices have burnt down. We have had five or six cases in rural Canada where--it's probably not that well known that 1,100 of our rural post offices are in individual homes--postmasters have retired, or they have had a heart attack, or they have even passed on and their spouses and families say, we no longer want the post office in our living room. In that case, we have to look for alternatives, and in some of the places in rural Canada there are no retail establishments in the community for us to use as an alternative. So those kinds of situations will arise. It's just inevitable.

But am I committed to service to rural Canadians? Absolutely.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

You mentioned earlier as well that if you had more time or more notice.... I think we've had seven or eight months' notice right now. We know that there will be another rural mail route that will stop receiving mail tomorrow, or next week, or the month after and so on and so forth, just purely on the fact that it has increased since they first appeared in November.

So what measures have we taken, other than the temporary green boxes? Do we have enough green boxes that we can employ them immediately? Have we talked to other potential...? Have we done any surveys or risk assessments in other rural mail routes?

Actually, I also spoke with the CUPW people, and they mentioned that they were not involved in the safety study for which you have hired experts in this matter--to look into the ergonomic as well as the safety issue.

The final point is, could you maybe comment on your meeting with the Prime Minister and the minister? Did the meeting touch on rural mail delivery, or was it something else? Do you anticipate that one of the solutions may be that the government will use their dividend of $80 million this year to maybe pony up and subsidize some of the costs that are required to maintain rural mail delivery? You mentioned to me previously, as did your staff, that it is a costly way to get right-hand trucks and so on and so forth. So maybe for part of that $80 million, the government would part with some of it and maybe partner with you, half and half or something like that. Was there any discussion about that?

[Moya Greene]

First, what are we doing on the risk assessment side? There are 800,00 points of call, and these points of call are organized around 6,000 different routes, so there are sometimes many hundreds of points of call in a single route. To assess which point of call has a highway traffic safety problem is a huge undertaking, because you have to go out to all of those routes and have a look, site by site.

That's what we're doing. We've asked the rural officers of our company and the local officers of our company--officials of our company--to do that for us, and the National Research Council study at least gave us some criteria that we could use to make that assessment.

We are also relying, to get this done as quickly as we possibly can, on engineering maintenance companies that work with us throughout the country on maintaining our facilities, because they have engineering capability. We're relying on these companies to give us extra arms and legs, to go and look and try to assess where we might have an issue so we can be a little bit more proactive and say to Canadians who might be affected, “We're worried and we don't want you to see a disruption in service without notice.” So we're doing that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Thank you.

We're going to go on to Monsieur Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good morning, Ms. Greene.

If I'm not mistaken, you announced on August 3, 2005 that you would be shutting down the mail sortation plant in Quebec City. When exactly did you decide to shut down this centre?

[Moya Greene]

I will have to check the exact date of our meeting with Mr. McCallum, who was the shareholder's representative. The announcement was made just before that meeting.

As you know, under article 29 of the collective agreement, we had to notify our union of our rationalization plans. That is exactly what we did. The announcement was made precisely at the same time. We had an obligation to do that under the contract.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

And how did you arrive at that decision? On what documentation and what kind of analysis did you base yourself to make the decision to shut the Quebec City sortation centre?

[Moya Greene]

Operational matters are handled by people who work in operations, in the region. For myself and others in the Corporation, the criteria are always the same. We ask ourselves whether it's possible to rationalize operations without cutting back services, without penalizing either part-time or permanent employees or causing job losses in those areas, and whether this can be accomplished in an orderly manner. Finally, we must ask ourselves whether this can be done while maintaining service to the people of Quebec City, both operationally and logistically. These people are tasked with answering those questions.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Did you carry out an impact study to ascertain the consequences of the sortation centre closure for Quebec City and Eastern Quebec?

[Moya Greene]

Operationally speaking, our people in Quebec took all necessary steps to ensure that service would be maintained in the region. They were aware of existing transportation links. Three additional links were put in place. They also set up a special system in Montreal for mail from Quebec City. So, from an operational standpoint, our people in Montreal, Quebec City and the surrounding area put in place...

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Excuse me, Ms. Greene. If I understand you correctly, an assessment was made.

[Moya Greene]

Well, our people...

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Fine. I want to put a very simple question to you. Madam Chair, please enlighten me in this regard. I would like the Committee to be able to get a hold of the assessments or assessment that was carried out of the potential consequences for Quebec City and Eastern Quebec. I would like us to be given copies of that document, and I would also like to receive a written document from Canada Post setting out the rationale for closing the Quebec City mail sortation plant. Will you provide us with a written document setting out the rationale for your decision and providing an assessment of its impact?

[Moya Greene]

I don't know whether such a document exists. I will ask my colleagues in the region and in operations whether such a document does exist.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

If I understand you...

[Moya Greene]

I will ask them.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

My background is in teaching. When you have to present a curriculum or evaluate your students, you have to have proper documents. We're talking here about the closure of a mail sortation centre, so I do hope there are documents to support that decision. I certainly hope that such an important decision was not made verbally, in the course of a conversation one day. Madam Chair, I would like it to be noted that we should receive documents from the Corporation explaining the rationale for closing the mail sortation centre in Quebec City and setting out the impacts of that decision on Quebec City and Eastern Quebec.

[Moya Greene]

I will find out whether such a report exists.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

If it does exist, you will provide it to the Committee.

[Moya Greene]

That's what I intend to do, Mr. Nadeau. I will make enquiries.