Evidence of meeting #39 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 services.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
There was no contact person or intermediary between you and Canada Post?
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
I can tell you that you are not the only ones, unfortunately.
If you had been informed in advance and had taken part in those discussions, do you think it would have changed anything as to the installation, the approach, and the success of such an important undertaking?
10:20 a.m.
Mayor, Municipality of Bathurst
Yes, certainly.
In our community, the people who accepted the community mail boxes report all the problems I mentioned with regard to location, safety, lighting, snow removal, winter maintenance, and parking.
It would have been helpful if there had been some cooperation and communication so we could work together to resolve these difficulties. There is currently a lack of communication.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
I will now turn to you, Ms. Anderson.
Are your union's communications with Canada Post similar to what the mayor just described? Was information provided in advance or were you not informed until the last minute when it was a fait accompli, without any sharing of information or cooperation?
10:20 a.m.
President, Atlantic Region, Local 12, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
With the postal workers there was very little collaboration. There was a survey that did go out to the residents probably very early in the process, but the questions were so limited. It was, do you want small CMB, community mailbox, sites or do you want large CMB sites? There was really no, do you want this or don't you want it, or where would be a safe location for this?
10:20 a.m.
President, Atlantic Region, Local 12, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Exactly, yes, it was so limited. A lot of people, if they didn't see the surveyor or find out about it in advance, the only time they found out about it was when the postal workers held a town hall meeting and we had about 200 residents who came and everybody in that meeting was against the CMBs.
There was very little collaboration. Even as postal workers in our office, there was none.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Can we say that there is a big lack of confidence between the two of you, and if the confidence were higher, the transmission of the information and the success of the project would be in a better way?
10:20 a.m.
President, Atlantic Region, Local 12, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
It would definitely make things a lot better. Mind you, as postal workers, we are against the loss of jobs and the implementation of CMBs across the country, but they don't work with us at all, on anything.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Mr. Mayor, on postal banking, there is a challenge with the technology. There is the same kind of technology with Canada Post and the banking. How are you going to deal with that?
10:20 a.m.
Mayor, Village of Chipman
The answer is that we're looking for basic functions in the community, access to change, those of kinds of things. We're looking at safe night depositories, because our local businesses, and there are over 100 of them, don't have that kind of thing as of tonight.
This is a major factor in our community: basic banking, deposits, and maybe other kinds of things. The technology is not that complicated on that kind of aspect.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
Next is Mr. Kmiec, for seven minutes, please.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Thank you, all, for coming in today. I really appreciate the time you're taking to present to the committee.
I will direct most of my questions to postal banking.
Mr. Atkinson, thank you. I believe you are the first person I know who has actually presented some hard data on the need in your community for some type of banking services.
Do you know why Scotiabank closed its branch? Did they provide you with an explanation?
10:20 a.m.
Mayor, Village of Chipman
In March, Scotiabank announced, per the six-month requirement, that they were closing the bank in Chipman and transferring accounts to Minto, which is 15 miles away.
Part of our problem is that we are equidistant from Oromocto, Sussex, Fredericton, and other communities. We are about the same distance, 75 minutes, to Newcastle, Saint John, and Moncton. Part of it is that they felt that they could high-grade, close the bank, and move quickly into the next community, and people would follow.
The answer was, no—
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Mr. Atkinson, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have a bunch of questions I want to ask both you and Ms. Anderson.
Was it because it was a low-volume branch, or because they were just consolidating their services?
10:25 a.m.
Mayor, Village of Chipman
They consolidated because they thought that they could save money.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Did you at any point contact any of the other chartered banks, or maybe the Atlantic credit unions?
10:25 a.m.
Mayor, Village of Chipman
We have gone through an extensive process. We met with five different banking institutions. We have someone who's going to come in and provide full-service banking. Ironically, in the last week, Scotiabank has agreed suddenly to give us the building that it's in, make a big donation to our library, and bring in a full-service ABM into the community. None of that was going to be available before the committee started its work and hundreds of hours of preparation.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Have any of the other ones committed to bring in the type of banking services that you need in the community?