Government Operations Committee on Oct. 5th, 2016

[John Barrett]

You got it.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

—between the two parties. But you also said in your testimony that your rates go up every single year. It's the thing that you count on the most. You know those are going to go up for your admail. Can't you get an agreement? Can't Canada Post give you a better deal because of this cost to you, basically? You bear the cost as a business.

[John Barrett]

I do get a better deal. I'm at rate group 11, or whatever it's called, which is the best discount rate on parcel products that you can get across the country. Canada Post's hands are tied. It's not like a business, where we can write you a cheque or we can discount this or that. There are certain regulations. It's postage. We're really talking about currency here.

Their hands are tied on certain aspects, but there are other considerations that we get, whether it's cubing or whatever.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

You mentioned in your opening statement the postal office in an urban area.

[John Barrett]

It was in a rural area.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

It was in a rural area, but it has an urban feel now, like it's a corporate post office.

[John Barrett]

No, that's not what I said, actually. I cited the example of a very tiny post office in a rural area whose clientele would regularly visit an urban area. So I guess on the surface it looks like a redundant outlet.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

Over 40% of Canada Post's retail postal operations are actually contracted out. The rest are part of Canada Post itself. It owns the building. Usually they're historical buildings. Right now there's a 20-year moratorium on shutting down rural post offices. The 20 years have passed. A lot of these rural post offices are in urban areas today.

I'll give you examples: Brampton, Saskatoon, and Halifax. Do you think it would be a good idea to reduce costs by adjusting this moratorium in order to allow for savings on one end in these larger urban centres to preserve some of the rural areas that may need the service?

[John Barrett]

I'm not really sure or fully grasping what you're saying. You're saying that savings should be made in the urban area to maintain the rural facilities. It seems, on the surface, to be the opposite way of going about it. Again, I'm not running Canada Post, thank goodness.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Perhaps you should be. Maybe they'll want to hire you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

Our next intervention will come from Madame Ratansi, for five minutes, please.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you very much. I'm glad you're running your business, because it's doing wonderfully well.

Do you just supply seeds across Canada and the U.S.?

[John Barrett]

Yes.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

I was looking at your website, and you do something called “Farmers Helping Farmers”.

[John Barrett]

We don't market to other countries besides Canada and the U.S. We have isolated or one-off customers here and there, too, such as in Japan. At the end of seasons, as well, seeds that might not hold their germination rates to the standard we want to sell commercially, we will utilize in places such as Kenya and Tanzania with Farmers Helping Farmers, or another third world area, so that people can actually grow food rather than the seed going to waste.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you. That's what we are looking at. There is a qualitative analysis and a quantitative analysis. In the quantitative analysis, we look at the financial situation of Canada Post, the figures and thought processes. In the qualitative analysis we're looking at the tangible impacts on people's lives. I thank your company for helping farmers build a better life and better crops, because that will help build sustainability and their levels of income and, therefore, their economic potential.

In that regard I have a question for you. You probably have a very good network of distribution. You also have a very good sales force. If you wanted to bring about any change, would you consult your sales force or would you make the change by edict?

[John Barrett]

Our sales force is our printed catalogue.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Oh, is that right? How do you create that catalogue, with input from whom?

[John Barrett]

It's from the experts in the gardening field who work for us, my observation of what the competition is doing, what is new around the world....

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

So it's a collective effort, with input from everyone. It's not you saying, “Here is what I want in the catalogue.”

[John Barrett]

Sometimes it is—

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Well, I'm glad you're not running Canada Post.

[John Barrett]

—or it's what my wife wants in the catalogue.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[John Barrett]

We have a very large team within our marketing and horticultural divisions. That's why we run a 40-acre research farm where we have trials of new varieties that you might not even see for four or five years. We have trial gardens in Holland and in the United States for new products. Yes, it's a complex thing, but we don't have any salespeople.