Evidence of meeting #125 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 terms.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
We haven't released our annual report yet for 2017, so for that reason—
11:40 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
It will be tabled very shortly.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay.
How are those funds managed right now? Is it a third party pension manager?
11:40 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No. It's managed by an internal pension management group.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Do we know, maybe going back to the last fiscal year, what the average return was on those pension investment funds?
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
That's an excellent question. Again, that will be reported for 2017 in the new annual report that will be tabled, as I say, very shortly.
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I don't have in my knowledge 2016, 2015, or 2014. I apologize, but I would be happy to report back to the committee on that.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Yes, it would be helpful if you would do that. Thank you.
I'm wondering about staying on that sort of fiscal framework. There's the reclassification, of course, and Canada Post is no longer required to pay dividends back to the federal government. Is that going to be used to perhaps top up the pension? Is that being considered at all?
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I'm not aware that it's been considered in the past. I think the relief from needing to provide dividends back to the government is, from my personal perspective, very welcome for the corporation. We haven't talked at all, actually, about the capital investments that need to be made in what is an aging system—
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
—and one that needs to be transformed to be able increasingly to deliver parcels. While there is quite a bit to talk about in terms of the new path forward and being competitive, we haven't talked at all to this point about the capital investment that needs to be made in network expansion. I'm very pleased that in my mandate letter it was also reconfirmed that government is removing any future requirement to pay a dividend.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Right, so are you looking at that excess cash flow now being mobilized for capital investment, then?
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Well, in general, being available to the corporation to be successful in delivering its services: I didn't mean to say that it would necessarily be fully earmarked into capital investments. I just wanted to bring that up as another financial priority for the corporation.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
It's clearly another priority of the corporation. Okay. Thank you for that.
I want to talk a bit about the January announcement by the minister and especially the new accessibility for seniors and people with disabilities. Can you expand on that and the importance you see of this in serving the Canadian public?
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Yes, for sure. In terms of its importance, it's of the highest priority, really, for the corporation to ensure that Canadians can receive their services in the way that is needed for them.
For anybody with accessibility challenges, whether that's the elderly or anybody with a physical challenge, that has to be something that the corporation is responding strongly to. I look forward to this renewed focus on that and to actually engaging Canadians in terms of what those challenges are, and how, for one, they're going to continue to evolve with an aging population, and how we can ensure that we're doing the very best we can.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay.
I want to talk a little bit about a couple of things. First, what's the breakdown of your sources of revenue right now, when you look at letter and parcel and so on?
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Speaking extremely generally, you could still consider about 50% to be letter mail, I think about 20% ad mail or neighbourhood mail—the terminology changes—and about 30% parcel.
Is that what you mean in terms of a general breakdown?
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Yes.
That's currently. Do you see a big change in that ratio, going forward?
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I think, from all I've learned to this point, we're fairly confident that the trend will continue to be that the letter mail will shrink. It has a higher profit margin for the corporation. Parcels will continue to grow, but they have a slimmer profit margin. We think there is a tremendous opportunity for Canada Post to continue to have a significant share of its revenues coming in through what I'll call “ad mail”. Digital has taken a share of that, but I think Canada Post has proven that it has a very strong customer base that's very interested in ongoing relationships with the corporation.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Right.
Under the new framework, you're able to promote your remittance services.
11:45 a.m.
Chair of the Board of Directors and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Yes.
