Evidence of meeting #35 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 mail.
8:25 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
In Alberta, you get about a 12- to 18-month waiting list.
It's good you brought that up, because we've heard various things, such as “Oh yes, that's perfectly fine, too.” Someone else commented on that as well.
8:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Empower, The Disability Resource Centre
Yes, it can be problematic.
In reference to your question, I think going through the municipality is an excellent idea. Also, we have a national organization. CODNL has a national organization, and CARP. I think you can communicate through the municipalities, but also let the national organizations know, and that information will funnel down to us and then we'll get it out to our consumers and our clients.
8:25 p.m.
Conservative
8:25 p.m.
Chair, St. John's-Avalon Chapter, Canadian Association of Retired Persons
The same would apply. I have to admit that I was not aware of that service, but I think, just in addition to that, there are probably other services that Canada Post offers that the general public are not aware of as well. Just recently, within the past month, I had an opportunity to discover a service that would have been beneficial to the seniors community. Someone directed me to Canada Post. It was a total blow-away that we didn't know about it.
I guess my point is twofold. One is that they need to get better at communicating the services that they have. Second, the more we are aware of what services are available, the more they can be utilized. Our national organization would clearly be a way to filter the information down through to everybody.
8:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Newfoundland and Labrador, Coalition of Persons with Disabilities
I agree with both the points made around lines of communication. I'm just kind of thinking of using the postal service as a way to get out information as to what services are offered or how people can go about getting special delivery privileges.
I also agree with Kimberley's point on the difficulty around a one-day-a-week delivery mode in terms of getting notices for appointments and things like that. A letter comes out the week before to tell you about an appointment that you have the following week, and that's a very difficult turnaround when we're talking about only getting your mail once a week. That's definitely an important thing to keep in mind.
8:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
In Mr. Whalen's riding and my own riding, it's all three: community mailbox, door to door, and apartments/senior centres. Also, there's a large rural area, oddly enough, where they have to go in and pick up. Not everyone's getting door to door right now. There's a fair number of seniors or disabled who don't have it.
How are they addressing these issues? Those people aren't going to get door to door tomorrow. Others are adjusting. How do you think they're doing that?
I'm asking because you know more than I do.
8:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Newfoundland and Labrador, Coalition of Persons with Disabilities
I think at the moment they're being supported by their support system, if they have one. An important qualifier to make is that to assume that there is a support system is a difficult thing to assume. From my understanding, there's a toll-free number that people can call to get their mail actually brought to them if they do have problems picking it up. Some feedback that we've heard within the community and from consumer calls is that people are being told to ask a family member or a friend to pick it up for them if it's possible.
8:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Yes, I understand they do ask if you can you do this or do that before go ahead with delivering.
8:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Newfoundland and Labrador, Coalition of Persons with Disabilities
Yes. I think from our perspective, it's about a certain level of autonomy and independence. If I can't physically do something for myself, I shouldn't be asking other people to do it for me. It should be an equitable service provided to me that everyone else has equal access to. If that's a service that everyone has equal access to, but I don't because I can't physically access the space, or whatever other limitations may be posed on me, then I have to extend—
8:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
You've hit upon a good point, because it's not equitable right now.
8:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Newfoundland and Labrador, Coalition of Persons with Disabilities
Exactly.
8:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
There are huge.... Probably 50% don't have much.
Thank you again.
8:30 p.m.
Conservative
8:30 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
To pick up where Mr. McCauley left off, it's certainly the case that many parts of the country don't have door-to-door delivery right now, but is it not also the case that seniors and people with disabilities may have made choices to live in neighbourhoods that do have home delivery? Doesn't that speak to the importance of maintaining that service?
8:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Empower, The Disability Resource Centre
I would agree; they are either in apartment buildings or they have home delivery. I think the change is difficult for people with a disability and seniors as well, as is the unknown. When they read about it in the newspaper and they wonder what it means for them and whether they are going to lose their mail service and what's going to happen to their mail, that makes it difficult for people with disabilities.
8:30 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
Certainly.
Now to address the issue of home delivery a little bit more broadly, in some ways it's a strange topic to be discussing, because in most advanced industrialized countries it's just taken as a given that mail would be delivered to your home. We now have a federal government that was elected promising exactly that, so I wonder if you could speak a little bit to your understanding of what was put forward during the election campaign and your expectation of the government in terms of keeping door-to-door delivery?
8:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Newfoundland and Labrador, Coalition of Persons with Disabilities
It's our hope to keep in place whatever door-to-door delivery still exists and to ensure that if we are keeping home delivery in place but changes are needed, that those will involve a reduction in delivery days rather than a complete cutting of the service.
8:35 p.m.
Chair, St. John's-Avalon Chapter, Canadian Association of Retired Persons
I would say the same. Since we understood this to be a key issue of the election platform, we thought that the current movement toward community mailboxes would cease. We did not think there would be a complete return to home delivery unless that proved to be more equitable and fair for everybody in the analysis of the business model associated with it, but we thought that the service would not be decreased any further beyond what it currently is.
8:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Empower, The Disability Resource Centre
I agree.
8:35 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
Excellent. So if we have these consultations and the government were to remove door-to-door delivery, you wouldn't see that as really honouring what was promised during the election.
8:35 p.m.
Some voices
That's right.
8:35 p.m.
Weir
I just wanted that to be clear.
I also want to raise the issue of postal banking.
You mentioned in your presentations that it's a service that could help people with disabilities. I think it's also something that could help Canada Post make better use of its network of offices across the country, and I wonder if any of you would be in interested in elaborating on the potential for postal banking.
8:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Newfoundland and Labrador, Coalition of Persons with Disabilities
I will. It's interesting that you just mentioned that it was people's choice to live in the communities in which they live, but for a lot of people in Newfoundland and Labrador, it's not necessarily a choice. The choice is either to move into St. John's to have access to all the services or to stay where you were born and to live there with your community, your family, and the people you know and have grown up with.
To do that is also to make a lot of financial choices for yourself that are very limiting. I think of small, rural communities where there are maybe two or three places people can be employed. We're talking about maybe 10 or 15 people maximum in these kinds of situations. If Canada Post could have a postal banking system there, that would enable people to have microfinancing opportunities to start their own businesses and to have flexible employment opportunities.
Especially for people with disabilities, the full-time work week of nine to five, driving into the office and driving home at the end of the day, is not necessarily the setup they will mesh with that will allow for the accommodations they need in their lives. However, if they could have microfinancing opportunities and self-employment opportunities within their communities, which are very small but which could flourish with that infusion of economic prosperity, that would be a good place to be. Since there are already post offices in those communities, it would be great to use that infrastructure to infuse the rural communities with economic strength.
