Government Operations Committee on Oct. 19th, 2016

[Mark Heyck]

I'd need to better understand the rationale for first creating that franchise, I think. It's not entirely clear to me.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Well thanks very much.

You also spoke a bit about the importance of Canada Post as an employer in Yellowknife. I wonder, Ms. Brown, if you might say a few words about Canada Post employment in outlying communities.

[Sara Brown]

Yes, absolutely. Any institution that generates employment is absolutely critical. I think one of your speakers in the last round spoke about how chronically high the unemployment can be in some of our smaller communities that haven't been affected yet by resource development. It makes such a difference to have those people there and working and contributing to the economy there.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

I have perhaps a more general question to both of you. I think we've heard fairly consistently from you and from the previous panel that postal services are critically important in the north and that they need to be maintained. We've also heard that the debate about door-to-door delivery really isn't relevant in the Northwest Territories. If you had one or a few proposals or asks to improve postal service in this area, what would they be? What would be your top priorities?

[Sara Brown]

As was discussed earlier, certainly with the issue of sorting and stuff being done in Edmonton, I know even for mail within the city it can sometimes take up to two weeks. That's pretty bad, and it doesn't take very long for you to not be competitive, especially now with the digital age, if that's the case.

Anything that would speed up the delivery would enhance it. We certainly respect the challenges that we have here, as I said, with weather and remoteness, but sometimes, here in Yellowknife especially, the level of service can get quite low.

[Mark Heyck]

I think it would be worthwhile trying to benchmark and set some standards for those delivery models. I have to pay compliment to the many Canada Post employees who, particularly around the holiday season, are out until 9 or 10 o'clock at night delivering to homes the parcels that can't necessarily fit in the community mailboxes. That's great to see, but also some establishment of those standards to make sure that the service is being delivered on a consistent basis would be good.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Ms. Brown, you mentioned that it's not possible to be competitive with unpredictable or overly long delivery times. I wonder if you could speak a little bit about the importance of postal services, not so much for northern residents to shop elsewhere but also for northern businesses to be able to sell their products outside the territory.

[Sara Brown]

Certainly there has been a lot of discussion around that. I sit on a panel for the economic opportunities strategy; and in the secondary industries, the manufacturing type of industries, the ability to ship materials out, particularly from our more remote locations, is acknowledged as a limitation at this point.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Is it primarily a limitation dealing with delivery times or cost, or both?

[Sara Brown]

It's both.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Your Worship, do you have anything to add on that?

[Mark Heyck]

Yes, I would agree with Ms. Brown that it's both of those items. The cost of doing business is already high in the north. We understand there are limitations and capacity issues around fostering manufacturing. Certainly in sectors such as arts and crafts there are many efforts under way to grow the economic sector and to be able to access other markets in southern Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

Madame Ratansi, for seven minutes, please.

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

Thank you for being here. My question is to both of you.

Mayor, you talked about the need to keep good jobs, to keep communities economically sustainable. We need to ensure that Canada Post is sustainable from a financial perspective, but that it also plays a role in terms of social cohesion. Could you give some suggestions as to how Canada Post can increase its revenue streams so that, like a business but a service, it can remain sustainable?

[Mark Heyck]

On the expenditure side, I think there are certainly some things that the committee has examined and previous consultations have looked at, such as moving to a community mailbox system. Again I recognize there are different challenges in other parts of the country with that particular suggestion, but it's something that in the north we've certainly accepted.

I do think there is that opportunity, and as I mentioned earlier, the potential for a more detailed examination of postal banking and what role that might play as a revenue generator for Canada Post. We certainly agree, and as a local government we're in the same position, that we need to be financially viable and sustainable, but I do think there are other options, both for revenue-generating tools such as postal banking or perhaps other advertising opportunities, and on the expenditure side, regarding things such as community mailboxes.

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

Madame Brown.

[Sara Brown]

I was just thinking about one thing as well. One of the challenges we have here is that many of our community members do not have credit cards, so that poses a challenge for them in terms of shopping online. I wonder if there might be some opportunity to be doing both the purchasing end with retailers and the delivery, to facilitate that, whether you go in to Canada Post to pay or something along those lines that would help facilitate that sector, which is particularly large here.

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

What we heard from the previous speakers was that to keep remote communities sustainable.... They don't have access to cash, so within an environment of a lack of broadband, a lack of facilities really, how do they generate revenue, and how can they sustain postal banking? How would that happen?

[Sara Brown]

I'm not sure without knowing what sorts of models you're looking at. Certainly we are moving more and more to cashless, but it is a problem for many of our residents here that they do not have access to credit or even going into a bank. That may be where one of your opportunities may lie.

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

We'll have to work with other areas of government to see that there is an expansion of broadband to remote communities—

[Sara Brown]

Absolutely.

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

—because otherwise the remote communities face isolation. You talked about isolation, and therefore I was going to ask how you keep your remote communities economically viable, socially viable—we have so many social challenges—and mentally viable? If you have any thoughts when you are not here, you can also send them over. That would be really important because we need those solutions.

There was a task force suggestion of third party...selling the last mile. Are you familiar with this, that Canada Post has the ability to deliver the last mile? Would you agree with the recommendation that Canada Post give it away to a third party?

[Mark Heyck]

Can you explain the concept of last mile?

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

The concept is where the concrete ends, to remote communities, is where Canada Post goes; so if they were to parcel it out to somebody else, would that work for your remote communities?

[Sara Brown]

It varies from community to community what providers there are in town. We do have some third party providers. Northwestel is in all the communities, and then we have third party Internet providers as well in some of the communities.