Thank you very much to the committee. Welcome to Yellowknife. I hope you enjoy your very short visit here.
The Northern Territories Federation of Labour welcomes the opportunity to provide input on the Canada Post review. I'd like to just recognize first that we are on the traditional land of the Dene people. Mahsi cho. We thank them for that.
The NTFL was founded in 1980. We have more than 10,000 affiliated members from more than a dozen unions in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. We work to advocate for and protect workers' rights and interests in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, including the security and welfare of all people; to protect and strengthen democratic institutions and secure full recognition of the enjoyment, rights, and liberties to which we are justly entitled; and to promote the causes of peace and freedom in the world.
We understand that the committee has been appointed to collect input and information and to identify options for the future of Canada Post in order to help the federal government attain its goal of ensuring that Canadians receive quality service from Canada Post at a reasonable price. The NTFL is especially interested in protecting workers' rights, ensuring the sustainability and enhancement of public services, and levelling the playing field across all industries to eliminate greed and self-interest, which are not in the public's best interest.
Canada Post has made profits 19 out of the 21 past years. Just last year it netted almost $100 million in profits. There's no reason those profits shouldn't be invested back into our communities. Canada Post ultimately is a public service that can do more with its vast network. Let's not shut the doors on Canada Post and its potential.
Without going too much into technical detail, I'm just going to hit on a couple of key items that I feel would really benefit the north, both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. I get a lot of this from a “Labour Views” column that I wrote back in June, which was in our local newspaper. It was going over a history of Canada Post. I don't feel that a lot of Canadians realize the vast history that Canada Post has in this country, especially in the early days.
In 1981, when the Canada Post Corporation Act came into effect, it demolished the Post Office Department of Canada. Since then, Canada Post has evolved and modernized its operations. However, over the last few years many tactics have been employed by Canada Post to reduce expenses, increase revenues, and eliminate the services that Canadians and businesses depend on to receive their mail, such as bills, pension cheques, letters, packages from friends and families, and so on. Despite these tactics, the workers at Canada Post have remained committed to ensuring that Canadians receive the highest quality public service possible, but not without challenges from Canada Post in its efforts to try to deceive Canadians through campaigns feigning financial difficulties despite continuing to be profitable year after year.
What can we do to help save Canada Post and create services to help out Canadians who live in remote regions? In the Northwest Territories and Nunavut we have 58 communities—33 in the NWT and 25 in Nunavut—that are fly-in communities. The one thing that not every one of those 58 community in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut has is a banking outlet. The one thing that Canada Post could bring to a lot of northern remote communities is affordable, accessible postal banking, something that currently does not exist in a lot of the small communities.
The other thing we've noted about how postal banking would benefit a lot of the smaller jurisdictions is especially in helping people in lower income situations, indigenous and rural residents, and migrant workers, as well as people who are forced to use payday lenders or are forced to pay high fees at regular big banks.
One thing we want to see is that Canada Post should release the study unredacted so that Canadians can see what the true benefit of Canada Post could be.
I'm going to end there.