Evidence of meeting #43 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 service.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay.
From your perspective, as someone who's involved in mailing 6.5 million pieces of mail a year, if you were going to point a finger, would you point the finger at labour or management, or would you say there's a shared responsibility for that drop in volume?
Manager, Billing Operations, EPCOR Utilities Inc.
I'm not sure, to be fair. I don't know that I can name one particular group over the other.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay, fair enough.
Ms. Schinke, it's interesting, this notion about the payday loan. About how many of your loans require additional enforcement to be paid? Would you able to give me a percentage in your industry?
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay, so 20% of the time you would have to go to enforcement, which justifies the high interest rate. Are there additional fees on top of the 15% that are allowed in Alberta, like a start-up fee or an initiation fee?
Former Vice-President, Cash Money Inc.
No, only if the loan is in arrears. Then there's interest that can be charged.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay. You don't pay $10 to get in. Is that 15% annually, or is it 15% on the loan?
Liberal
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay, fair enough.
Ms. Moffat, how do you think Canadians would feel about the brand of Canada Post if it had to go and collect and enforce on loans to 20% of the people it gave loans to?
President and Chief Executive Officer, St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce
I wouldn't worry about that. If that's your business, then that's your business, honestly.
President and Chief Executive Officer, St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce
From what I understand, just from hearing you speak here today, postal banking is more than payday loans.
President and Chief Executive Officer, St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce
Okay. You have a whole different game going on. I think that the public wouldn't feel any different from having the other bank come and knock on their doors to collect their money.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay, fair enough.
In talking about the pain points and customer support on the epost product, Ms. Macintosh, do you have any suggestions on how that can be improved?
Manager, Billing Operations, EPCOR Utilities Inc.
From the issue that we experienced earlier this year, I think it's probably more education for Canada Post call centre staff, or whoever is initially taking those calls, in terms of identifying where the issue lies, or being able to pass the issue to someone who can take ownership.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you.
We're going into our final two interventions now. They will be five minutes each. Mr. Clarke will be first. Panellists, you may wish to put on your translation devices should Mr. Clarke wish to speak French.
Mr. Clarke, you have the floor for five minutes.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Hello everyone.
I just want to say, for the sake of the unity of the country, and the honour of French Canadians, I will be speaking French today.
Regarding the difficulties you're experiencing in Alberta, from an economic point of view, I simply want to specify that, as a Québécois, I support the energy east project. I'm working very hard in Quebec to have a pipeline that runs through our province and contributes to Canada's economic development. I wanted to make that clear. It's important to say that not everyone in Quebec is against the project.
My approach to Canada Post is patriotic.
My question is for you, Ms. Moffat. Do the members of your chamber of commerce see Canada Post as a cold, rational and technical service or as a national symbol?
President and Chief Executive Officer, St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce
I am sure that they don't see it as a cold and impersonal organization. I'm also not sure that they see it as a national symbol. I think Canada Post has always been here, so a lot of people probably don't even think about it or question it until something causes them to do that.
Your postal service is like the milkman used to be. You always knew it was there, you always knew he was coming, and you always had your fresh milk. With Canada Post, that service has always been there. We take it for granted, perhaps, and we count on it.
When I talk to you about business stability being so important, that's the kind of thing that is basic to the success of business people. I'm not sure that they view it as a national symbol. I think if you asked them the question and made them think about it, they would probably say yes.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
Ms. Schinke, I understand you represent individuals. Do you think the people you represent see Canada Post as a national symbol or as a rational and technical service company?
Former Vice-President, Cash Money Inc.
That may be a hard question for me to answer, because it's not really a topic that would come up. Currently, where the industries do compete is with money transfers. Canada Post is an agent of MoneyGram. The payday lenders that I've worked for were agents for Western Union. There definitely is some overlap.
The industry has worked very hard to try to compete with certain aspects of the banks, and to offer service levels that avoid lineups, for example, that get to know clientele, use first names. When someone comes to a payday lender, we know that the bank has turned them down, whether it's to cash a cheque or to get a loan or a credit card. The perception is that service levels are just not the same with Canada Post.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you, Ms. Schinke.
Ms. Mackintosh, I believe one of Canada Post's recommendations was to potentially reduce the number of delivery days. In other words, instead of a daily delivery service, the service would be two or three days a week.
If that were the case, how would the change affect your business?
Manager, Billing Operations, EPCOR Utilities Inc.
For our company, for EPCOR, at least, changing the delivery from daily service to one that's every two or three days wouldn't have that big an impact. I say that because we've obviously seen the shift towards community mailboxes. People aren't used to, or as inclined to even check their mail daily. I think an extra couple of days probably wouldn't have a big impact on us.