Evidence of meeting #40 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 seniors.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
How many seniors in your constituency live independently in their own houses or in seniors buildings? Do you have any idea of the numbers?
11:20 a.m.
President, Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées
Yes, I know the percentage. Approximately 76% of seniors live at home, and the others live in private residences, use intermediate resources, and are in CHSLDs or in places where there is more security.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
The people who were living in the houses always received door-to-door delivery, or did they not?
11:20 a.m.
President, Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées
Yes.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Yes.
Okay. Mr. April, did you receive door-to-door delivery, or was yours also a community mailbox?
11:20 a.m.
Project Manager and Communications Officer, Comité d'action des personnes vivant des situations de handicap
It's a community mailbox.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
11:20 a.m.
Project Manager and Communications Officer, Comité d'action des personnes vivant des situations de handicap
When I lived in the regions, I received mail at my home.
However, there are not enough services in the regions to live there. I would not even be able to go to work if I still lived there. So I came back to the city to live and lost home delivery service. So I sacrificed a few services in order to gain others.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
If we are looking at the future of Canada Post and how we can maintain that service as financially stable and sustainable, what solutions would you have? What would you like to see in terms of the seniors, the additional services that Canada Post could provide them while also making money? Where would they make money? I know that Monsieur Collomb d'Eyrames has given some suggestions about postal banking in France, which is successful there and in other parts of the world as well.
What other services do you propose and can you speculate on whether or not the seniors would use those services?
11:25 a.m.
Director General, Regroupement des organismes de personnes handicapées de la région 03
As I previously told you, the UMQ's presentation was very interesting. To learn more about that, we import files from the Internet and information on the situation in other countries. However, it is very difficult to import a model. You should take seriously the UMQ's recommendation to examine the situation more closely.
Consider the example of France and the history of France's postal service. In some respects, it could compare with the Desjardins model in Quebec. It would be rash to import the French model here on the pretext that profits are being made in France. In fact, we have no idea how it is working there.
Switzerland is another good example. It has 7 million inhabitants, as in Quebec. Switzerland has a smaller area than Quebec. So sometimes you need to be careful when you import models. The idea of looking into the matter is an important one.
I very much like what you are saying, that we must not find out from a newspaper that a committee is studying the subject and has been doing so for three years. You have to communicate directly with the AQDR and examine the services, consult the groups, and conduct the survey that the UMQ is proposing. We feel this idea is very interesting and believe that, if you want to do it quickly, including issues of accessibility for persons with disabilities, taking into account the act, sustainable development, and so on, it will help you develop a vision of the subject. The idea is not to consider merely the financial aspects, but also quality of life. That also has a financial value. I am thinking in particular of greenhouse gas reductions. We believe this committee should promptly carry out its work with a view to studying what people have to say and what they think about the issue here in Canada.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much to all of you for taking the time out of your very busy schedules to be with us. I make the following offer to all of our panellists. Should you have additional information you wish to bring to our attention that would assist us in our deliberations, please direct it to our clerk and we will take it as part of our presentation material before we write our final report. If you could submit that within the next two weeks, I would appreciate it greatly.
Thank you once again for being here.
We are adjourned.