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.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
We're now going to our final three interventions. They will be five minutes each, and we'll first go to Mr. Kmiec for five minutes, please.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for coming.
Mr. White, I'm so happy to see someone from the Chamber of Commerce. I used to work for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce as manager of policy, so I'm going to ask you as bunch of questions on the business side, because I'm curious.
Over the summer there was the potential for labour disruption on either side, either a lockout or a strike. Whatever it was, there were employer-employee disagreements. What was the impact on business here?
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
For our local community there was a lot of hesitation, a lot of paying attention to the day-to-day progress, or lack thereof, and looking every day for information on whether to take a chance by putting something into the system or to hold off and take on a little more expense with a courier.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
On that, what are the alternatives for local businesses if they have to send something such as a letter that's mission-critical to the business for it to get there?
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
It would be private courier systems service.
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
It's about double.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Do you have any other choices, such as using secure email or some type of app that would allow you to do that?
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
Sure, you can do that. As I said earlier, some of our business owners are very technology savvy and would be able to tap into that for sure, and they did use that. Others did not.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Then my question is this: Canada Post right now enjoys a monopoly on the 500-gram letter delivery, but what if that were to end and perhaps there were more alternatives created out there?
For example, this committee has heard from Stéphane Ricoul about Relais Colis in France, a French company that was basically created to do that kind of business side of things, something that their postal service wasn't providing. The postal service there is privatized, so it's just an add-on to the service right now, but it's more business-oriented—B2B, or business to business, so to speak.
If that monopoly that Canada Post enjoys were ended, leaving Canada Post as it is but just ending the monopoly to allow for business people in places such as Cape Breton and region to perhaps develop other means of transmitting letters or very small documents like that, would that be something that businesses locally would be interested in?
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
I think that's an inevitable evolution that will happen anyway. Businesses will find alternative means to address that need.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
—although right now there's actually a monopoly on it: you're not allowed, under section 14 of the Canada Post Corporation Act.
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
Technology will come to find a way around it.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
It will be like email, basically. Something will exist to get around it.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
How many businesses are members of your chamber of commerce?
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
There are around 400 here.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
How many businesses does your Nova Scotia chamber network include?
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Roughly, how many business members are there across all of Nova Scotia?
6:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce
The Halifax chamber has about 1,700, and I believe the Annapolis Valley chamber, which is the second-largest, has around 500, but there are a lot more businesses in Nova Scotia. They are not all members of the chamber of commerce.