The price hikes have been rather significant. I think that for most small businesses it hasn't gone past the point of looking at Canada Post as at least an option, but it does hasten the move to.... In some situations, the price gap between a private courier option and Canada Post is not as significant as it used to be. Canada Post is still a low-cost provider of services, so it still has that to its advantage, but that is eroding, and eroding quickly.
The groups I'm hearing the highest level of concern from are those that use Canada Post to send low-cost items in the mail, things where the value of the product—and I would imagine newspapers and magazines would probably be in this boat—itself isn't that significant. Obviously, the delivery end of that is just so significant that it can create huge pressures. It is hastening some moving away from Canada Post, which I don't think is serving anyone's needs, but it is also putting pressure on small firms that continue to use it.
The other worry I always have is with respect to even the possibility of a work disruption. That ties money up in the mail, and as we shift towards online banking and expand the number of electronic B2B options for payments, that will be another chunk of Canada Post's business that will erode, and we have to be concerned about that.
There is a high degree of price sensitivity on the part of SMEs.