Evidence of meeting #44 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 community.
2:35 p.m.
As an Individual
Yes, but I wasn't doing it officially; I was just doing it on my own. When he saw my program, basically, I was the competition.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
2:35 p.m.
As an Individual
I was trying to, hopefully, get another job at Canada Post, making these cases instead of delivering mail. I'd been delivering mail for 27 years. I thought I'd try something different.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
How much time do you think your system would save in terms of automatically sorting the mail?
2:35 p.m.
As an Individual
It would be a lot, because I could take somebody who doesn't know anything about the job, and they could make them. With theirs, I said I had to make the paper thing, and you still do that now. You still do the paper thing, but with mine it's totally automated. You wouldn't have to know what you were doing. You would just put in a bit of information, and it would make the case for you.
2:35 p.m.
As an Individual
No, it just provides those strips in the cases for when people sort their mail, the addresses. We have these cases that we sort the mail into.
2:35 p.m.
As an Individual
These strips are made by us. If you want new strips, you have to actually physically write down where you want each one of the addresses to go, whereas with mine, you just put down all the postal codes on your walk, and it creates the case for you.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay. How much of your time would be spent if you didn't use this program?
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
How much time does it take you in a day to create one of your walks?
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
No, you're not using your program. You're going in, and you have to do it.
2:40 p.m.
As an Individual
If you have to write it all down, it might take you half an hour or so. Then every time there is a change in the case, you'd have to do it again, whereas with mine you wouldn't.
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay, so you expect you could eliminate 15% of your daily work.
October 18th, 2016 / 2:40 p.m.
As an Individual
It would be the people who actually make those strips. That's where you would save the time.
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
In terms of how we can provide better service or increased levels of service to rural communities, one of the things the task force report mentions but doesn't go into in too much detail on is that we could have a regulator who would oversee the service levels that are provided, and then companies that don't deliver their parcels all the way to rural communities would have to pay some type of a levy to subsidize entities like Canada Post that go all the way to the end. Is this something that would be amenable to Canada Post employees? How do you feel about that type of a model of service delivery?
2:40 p.m.
Director, Alberta/Northwest Territories/Nunavut, Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association
The customers would like it. A lot of customers get very frustrated that it can't be dropped off at the post office, because we are not allowed to accept items from other carriers unless they're paid for. They could make arrangements, and as far as I'm concerned, it would be to the customer's satisfaction. That's what Canada Post is all about, customer satisfaction.
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
UPS should be able to deliver a parcel to you guys, and your customers would be able to come and pick it up.
2:40 p.m.
Director, Alberta/Northwest Territories/Nunavut, Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association
They could do that for a fee.
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
There could be some type of pre-arranged fee.
We've learned that wages are now very low at Canada Post, compared to those for other industrial activity that happens in the country. Do the 50,000 employees at Canada Post still enjoy the type of wages that can allow them to raise families and send their children to university, or is it no longer possible for new people in Canada Post to do that?
2:40 p.m.
Director, Alberta/Northwest Territories/Nunavut, Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association
I'd have to refer you to our president, sir. I would take your name and number and have our president answer that, because I don't have the broad knowledge needed to answer that.