Thank you very much.
Just as a quick reminder, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which I represent, is made up of 109,000 small and medium-sized firms, all of them independently owned and operated and based across the country. Obviously, they have a very important stake in the discussions about the future of Canada Post, and we congratulate the committee for its work.
I've put together a small slide deck of some data that we've collected from our members on this front.
I want to start by saying that 91% of small firms view Canada Post as important. They view it as an important service that they have access to in Canada, so we don't believe that Canada Post's core mandate is done and that there isn't a future for the corporation. In fact, we think very much the opposite, as 40% of small firms send 50 or more pieces of letter mail per month, and 50% receive 50 or more pieces of letter mail per month. Those are SMEs across Canada.
It often surprises people that when we dissect that a little and look at what small businesses are using Canada Post for, payments are still very high on that list. People who have moved to online forms of payment are often surprised that small business B2B transactions are highly dominated by invoices in the mail and by cheques coming back in the mail as a form of payment. If you're paying an invoice of $10,000, you're unlikely to pull out a credit card to do that. You're likely to send a business cheque.
For small and medium-sized firms, 50% of purchases and 42% of sales come through cheques in the mail. Of course, during the recent debate over the strike and lockout, even though there wasn't necessarily a disruption, many small businesses took alternative measures in advance of that because they were so afraid of having money tied up in the mail.
Package delivery still remains a very dominant and growing use among small and medium-sized firms. I'll come to that in a minute.
Why do small firms use Canada Post? They use it because of accessibility, convenience, and cost. Those are the primary reasons why Canada Post is chosen by SMEs.
Again, when we looked at whether usage was increasing or decreasing, it is absolutely true that usage was decreasing. Forty-two per cent said that they have decreased their usage of Canada Post over the last three years. However, a growing number of small firms are moving online, making Canada Post's package delivery a pretty important option for them to get their products to market, especially low-priced products. If you're sending something valued at hundreds of dollars, you may look at a private courier service, but Canada Post is very dominant if somebody is sending an item worth $2 or $3.
We do believe that Canada Post maintains an important mandate, and our main message to the committee is to ensure that it is sustainable and that costs are watched carefully. There is an awful lot in the work the review committee has done already that supports these very measures.
When we surveyed our members as to some of the options that have been discussed with regard to reducing some of the cost pressures at Canada Post, a large number of small firms viewed freezing wages as being very important. I'll point to some of our Wage Watch data that shows Canada Post workers earn dramatically more than their private sector counterparts. When benefits and pensions are included, that moves to almost a 40% wage advantage for Canada Post workers over private sector norms. Freezing wages was number one on the list.
As well, making the shift to community mailboxes was generally supported by small firms. Moving delivery to perhaps three days a week was also something that was supported in broad terms. Involving more of the private sector in aspects of Canada Post, particularly at the front end, such as moving toward more private postal franchises, was also supported.
I will say, though, that it may surprise you to hear this from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, but our members were not supportive of outright privatization. That was not viewed as a step that small firms overall were supportive of at this time.
On expanding Canada Post's mandate to banking, I have to say that there was overall opposition to that proposal, despite the fact that a lot of small firms wish there were more competition in Canada's banking sector.
Again, here are our main messages.
Addressing unsustainable pension liabilities is absolutely key to fixing the problems. Addressing overall labour costs more to private sector norms is key to the future of Canada Post. Letter mail hikes should be reconsidered or limited, because that has been hitting a lot of small firms hard, and we ask you to pay careful attention to that. Canada Post's monopoly over domestic letter mail should perhaps be reconsidered, which is a last recommendation from us.
Thanks so much.