—approximately 50 on the full island.
Evidence of meeting #37 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 office.
Evidence of meeting #37 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 office.
6:15 p.m.
President, Local 117, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
—approximately 50 on the full island.
6:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much. I'm sorry; we're out of time.
Our next seven-minute intervention is from Mr. McCauley.
6:15 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Thanks for hosting us. It's been about 15 years since I've been to Sydney, and places like the harbour look as beautiful as before.
Mr. White, you commented about concerns over pace of change. Briefly, because we don't have a lot of time, can you give me some of your worries or some of the issues that you see with that? Do you mean just the way society is moving, or the way Canada Post is moving, or both?
6:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
I want to give you one simple example. Most businesses today with young business owners use advancing technology all the time because they're in that business do most of their transactions globally online. I have business owners who are 70 years of age and not very computer literate. They expect to receive an invoice or send an invoice to a customer, and they expect to receive a paper cheque back in the mail. That's one of the differences that I wanted to explain, because in time all businesses will roll to a technology that enables them to reduce their costs, and if you're not sending an invoice in the mail and you're not receiving a cheque back, you're not incurring a postal cost to do that. You can send it by email for free.
However, not all of our businesses are ready for that; they're just not there. The pace of change in the post office and how you move forward is of concern because I do not want to disadvantage any of our more established businesses that are not yet technologically savvy enough to participate in or take advantage of those technologies.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
It sounds as though they reflect pretty much every other community across Canada. I don't think they're seeing anything different—
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
—but thanks.
One of the issues that came up with the survey was that Canadians and businesses do not want to pay more for stamps, which would put businesses, etc., at a disadvantage, especially those who are still using that service. Would your members feel the same? Would they be open to higher stamp prices to address some of the fiscal issues?
6:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
I think the stamp increase that we had last time was monumental—
6:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
—and it drove a lot of our folks to try to find out a little bit more about technology. Maybe pushing it up higher will force more of my older clientele to find ways to address it and survive in that marketplace. I seriously don't believe that any of our members are out to pay more just for holding or preserving Canada Post as an entity in the country. They're looking to compete globally, and if this service is too expensive, we believe that other services will come out of the woodwork that will compete and provide that service.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
We basically had the same feedback about taxes when Canadians were asked if they were willing to pay higher taxes, and it was business individuals who were overwhelmingly not keen on it.
Mr. MacDonald, you commented that you've been with Canada Post for 31 years. Your relationship with the management doesn't sound like it's a favourable one, but bluntly, CUPW has never enjoyed anything other than a caustic relationship with management over the years. I'm not a young person; I remember the various issues going back quite a few years. What's changed, do you believe, and how is this any different from, say, 10, 15, or 20 years ago?
6:20 p.m.
President, Local 117, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
What has changed is that 30 years ago, when I first came into the post office, we were fighting to get some rights, some quality pay, some benefits, some pension, some things that every citizen in this country deserves and should have. Prior to 2011, we had 15 years of labour peace. There was no strike action and there were no problems. Canada Post was recognized as being among the top 100—
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
So you think it's all just based on the five-point plan?
6:20 p.m.
President, Local 117, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Everything started going bad for us in 2011. When the Conservatives were elected—
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
6:20 p.m.
President, Local 117, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
—they were hell-bent on destroying public services, and that's what happened.
Everybody is talking about the cost and raising prices. Well, I'd like to see the numbers. The Conference Board of Canada was predicting a $212-million loss, and they ended up with a $198-million profit. How do you trust numbers when you hear—
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
That leads me into the next question.
You talked about the profits. Can you not admit—I don't want to say “admit”; that's a bad word. Can we recognize that profit this year and last year is a result of some of the changes made? I understand that between the price increase of stamps, which is not popular, and the changes to the CMBs, it's about $80 million a year.
6:20 p.m.
President, Local 117, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
I think the amount of money Canada Post has wasted on trying to do something with the post office has to be a factor in the amount of money that's...and the lack of profits. There was millions of dollars wasted in a postal transformation for CMBs and $2.5 billion that they wasted seven or eight years ago on the mail sorting machines when they predicted a 26% loss in mail volumes.
As we're talking Lettermail, I wish I had an envelope here, because Lettermail is specifically the letter, the 24 x 10 letter—
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Sorry. We're so short of time that I do have to interrupt. I want to give Ms. MacEachern a chance to chip in.
The way you're explaining it, it almost sounds like a conspiracy by Canada Post to destroy it. I don't want to think that's like a fake moon landing, but do you really believe there is this conspiracy to destroy it for the sake of destroying it? To what end purpose would it be? You seem to be coming across—
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Can we get a short response, because we're running short of time?
October 4th, 2016 / 6:25 p.m.
Coordinator, Save Canada Post Campaign, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
It starts with a “P”.
6:25 p.m.
President, Local 117, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
They've done this to justify the losses that they're coming up with.
I'm going to tell you, during negotiations—
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Do you think the changes are being made for financial stability or sustainability?
6:25 p.m.
Coordinator, Save Canada Post Campaign, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
I wish it were for sustainability.
I think the changes in the long run point to privatization. It's an unfortunate—
