Government Operations Committee on Sept. 28th, 2016

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

We'll go back to the original one. Do you envision them doing mortgages or is it more cheque-cashing?

[Susan Sitlington]

Yes, small deposits, banking, chequing, and savings. I'm not so sure about mortgages, but that is an avenue.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

Mr. Schiller, thank you for your warm welcome this morning. I didn't realize you were the local candidate.

We've heard several times, brought up by certain people, that the Liberals had promised a return to door-to-door, and all throughout Edmonton the candidates have promised full return of door-to-door. You've mentioned it yourself this morning. We've heard, also, that there was no such promise.

I'm wondering if you could elaborate a bit on what you, as a candidate, thought was going to happen?

[Frank Schiller]

I think that from the beginning of the campaign to the end of the campaign, you saw a strengthening of the Liberal position, where initially it was a moratorium on community mailbox conversions. Then it went to the restoration of door-to-door mail service.

In Windsor that had a very particular meaning. In Windsor it's a unique case, because the actual implementation was in the middle of the campaign, after the writ was dropped but before the vote. Also, there are other communities just a little further up the 401 that were in a similar situation a couple of weeks later. They didn't end door-to-door delivery there; they put up the postal boxes but they didn't use them.

However, in Windsor and Tecumseh, in particular, that wasn't the case. Right in the middle of the campaign they stopped door-to-door delivery, and they hastily installed these postal boxes in unsafe areas. As a local candidate, my interpretation of the Liberal position was that those households in Windsor—Tecumseh that lost door-to-door delivery during the campaign would have that service restored.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Interesting.

Mr. Sutherland, thank you very much for your comments. They were very precise and open. I appreciate that.

How much of your area has been switched over from door-to-door? Do you recall?

[Norm Sutherland]

In our area we have Corunna, which is just south of Sarnia; Forest, which was done three years ago; Petrolia; and I believe there are one or two others.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

What's happened? Do you think it can be adjusted just by moving some of the boxes to different locations, or are the locations fine? What needs to be done to—

[Norm Sutherland]

No, basically we have a main post office, so we all got new post office boxes. Then we remove any post office box number from our address and use strictly a street address. That's how the mail is sorted. The whole purpose of that exercise was to make it more viable and efficient for packages. From where I sit, it's going to work out very well.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you.

Just really quickly, Ms. Sitlington, I'm sorry I was getting a bit aggressive earlier.

[Susan Sitlington]

It's quite okay.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

A lot has come up about the compensation and the pensions. We saw recently—just last week, I think—that General Motors and Unifor signed a contract. Everyone currently is grandfathered. Everyone new is put on a defined contribution plan, which CUPW rejects outright. Unifor and GM did it realizing it's needed to protect and save jobs. Do you not see CUPW doing the same, looking down the road of what's coming down with the changes and the loss of revenue from reduced door-to-door, or do you believe it should be a government service that should be subsidized by taxpayers?

[Susan Sitlington]

I feel that it should remain status quo. If I didn't want a pension, I would be working for a company like Walmart that didn't offer it. I chose to work at Canada Post. They have the pension—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I meant for anyone new coming aboard, not affecting you.

[Susan Sitlington]

Anyone new coming in should have the same advantage I had.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Do you think, going down the road, as losses happen—as has been projected—that the money should be made up by taxpayers?

[Susan Sitlington]

No, it should not be made up by taxpayers, hence the reason for generating revenue through other means like postal banking.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I think—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We'll have to end it there, Mr. McCauley. Those were your seven minutes.

Ms. Hardcastle, welcome to the committee, and you have seven minutes.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you so much for your indulgence. It's great to be here today. I've been pleased to attend this venue before. As my friend, Mr. Schiller, has mentioned, we've had the TPP here, and I've been a part of that committee, which was very welcoming at that time. When Minister Hehr was here he gave us the announcement with regard to veterans services being enhanced.

I'm glad that our federal government does see that Windsor is an important pulse of North America, and it is important that Canada Post does leverage all of its advantages with its existing infrastructure, especially in a community like Windsor.

My question is for Ms. Sitlington. You had a chance to touch a bit, with my honourable colleagues pressing the issue, on business viability. I know that for the flexibility of the CUPW there has been some innovation that's been brought forward. There has been some deception that's been clarified. I'd like to know what your union envisions as its role in helping Canada Post move forward, were it to try new ideas such as evening delivery and Saturday delivery, increasing parcel delivery, and with the argument for daily deliveries.

I'm sure you're well versed in all of these issues and haven't had the forum to dispel some of the positions that have been brought forward around the corporation. I would like to give you this opportunity to share with us the flexibility and innovation that is foreseen by CUPW.

[Susan Sitlington]

As far as CUPW, with the five-day delivery to help keep the post office green with letter carriers, our carbon footprint is zero. We deliver the parcels. We already have the mobiles and the trucks. We have the plants. We have the people. The service providers are there, and we just need to keep going forward. Maybe opening a plant in Windsor is a good idea to keep Windsor going. My post office has recently pushed back our start times. We used to start at 8 o'clock, and now as a carrier we start at 8:30 for highway services to get the mail and the parcels, because parcels are going to be big for Canada Post, and of course the Christmas season is coming. They've opened a plant, I think, in Scarborough and there was another one that they just opened that they had closed. All of these things tied together with the parcels, the possibility of postal banking, keeping letter carriers on the street, five-day delivery, and bringing services back that were taken away is all going to generate revenue for Canada Post.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you very much.

You mentioned processing earlier. Some of the points that Mr. Schiller brought up in his presentation were astute. Can you tell us a bit more about whether you know the existing infrastructure in Windsor and how that's been eroded away—so that any kind of business viability has become precarious—and maybe tell us about processing plants and post offices? Are you familiar with any of that information that's happened in the recent past?

[Susan Sitlington]

No. I do know that when Deepak Chopra started with his five-point plan, his plan was to only have two plants in all of Canada.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Quickly, it was brought up by another of my respected colleagues here about the union working with the corporation around pensions and labour reduction in order for the corporation to adapt to lower mail volumes. Has this been an adaptive corporation? Has the union previously worked with the corporation in terms of adapting? Has that already taken place over time?

[Susan Sitlington]

I'm not going to answer that question. I have to think.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Okay, that's fine. Thank you.