Thank you.
Canada Post delivers letters and parcels to homes and business every year. Many Canadians consider it a trusted and valuable service.
Home mail delivery is the most environmentally friendly way of moving parcels and letters from sender to receiver. Moving the delivery to five days a week is greener. Moving the delivery to three days a week would make a Canada Post parcel more expensive, which would result in the corporation losing market share to less environmentally friendly companies. More courier companies would step in to fill the gap, driving the same streets.
Fluctuation in volume is already built into the delivery system, so having carriers deliver fewer days makes it harder to reduce carbon footprint. From an environment perspective, Canada Post is the best delivery option. According to a 2011 report, getting a parcel delivered by Canada Post can cause up to six times less CO2 emissions than an overnight carrier, and three times less than having a customer make a five-kilometre trip to pick it up in a store.
Our national president Mike Palecek says we have more outlets than Tim Hortons. We've got the biggest retail network in Canada. We deliver everywhere in this country. Imagine what we could do with these assets.
Postal banking would be a powerful, low-cost alternative. With profits earned, it could help keep post offices thriving as a public service and bring returns to communities. Canada Post ceased postal banking in 1968. As of July 31, 2016, Canada's six biggest banks reported a combined profit of $10.4 billion, up 12.6% from last year's quarterly profit. Banking is the most profitable industry in Canada. Canadians pay some of the highest bank fees in the world. The average is $185 per user per year.
Banks have also pulled out of rural communities to bigger metropolitan cities where customers are more likely to make higher purchases, generating more wealth. China's postal bank serves over 400 million customers. Japan post is the largest deposit holder in the world. New Zealand and Italy post have successfully offset mail volumes with banking, They are able to keep letter carrier and retail services while still showing profits. Revenues for U.K. postal banks have shown a 40% profit, while France has shown a 65% profit from banking services. France's postal bank also offers services for low-income customers to social service agencies.
John Anderson, an author at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, studied the postal banking of several countries. He believes adopting a similar service for Canada Post is a no-brainer.
Canada's vast geography leaves cities, towns, and villages with a lot of kilometres betwixt them. Big banks have moved out of many rural communities, and this is much more pronounced in the northern regions.
Altering the moratorium on retail post offices would do nothing but make these small villages into ghost towns, leaving residents with a feeling of loneliness. Canada Post is the only federal entity these small communities have connecting them with the federal government. Pulling out would give them a feeling of not belonging.
Canadians have told the government they want their service restored to how it should be, through door-to-door delivery and retail counters. Community mailboxes were and are a big failure for Canada Post. Many cities, towns, and municipalities from coast to coast to coast fought against these monstrosities. We're able to stop them with the promise of door-to-door delivery being restored.
Letter carriers become the eyes and ears on the street. Letter carriers can sense if something is out of whack because they are there every day. There are many stories of letter carriers saving lives and homes, averting danger, providing smiles, love, and laughter. For some, the only human contact is the letter carrier.
We must look at the real story of Canada Post finances, and not absurd losses portrayed to Canadians who are accepting less service for higher postage. It's funny, Deepak Chopra worked for Pitney Bowes before Canada Post. After his five-point action plan, you can send metered mail with Pitney Bowes for 85ยข, but at a Canada Post retail outlet it's $1.
Of the last 22 years, 20 years of that were profitable for Canada Post. In 2011, they did not have a profit because of the court case they lost with PSAC over pay equity.
Canada Post has returned over $280 million to federal coffers through dividends and taxes. Even with its five-point plan, where it was portrayed that Canada Post was supposed to lose money, it has remained sustainable and profitable. Canada Post can be sustainable and can provide universal services for all Canadians from coast to coast to coast.