Government Operations Committee on Oct. 19th, 2016

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

—some professor talked about integrated thinking and critical thinking, which is wonderful. Do you think Canada Post is shooting itself in its foot when it's franchising out?

[Lynda Lefrancois]

They're making a bigger profit with the franchises, I believe.

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

They don't get a franchises fee, you know that, right?

[Lynda Lefrancois]

Because they don't have the employees, that's what I believe is happening, but the problem is the service. The service is not there. You can't have the customer service. You will not have the repeat service. I have the customers come in. Like I said, I stood there for 15 years with the customers. They would come in with their questions. They said they had been to Shoppers because they were picking up a parcel, that sort of thing. We were the ones who would help them.

As I stated in my statement, we are not selling them the highest priced product or service. We are meeting their needs. You give the customer something, they're going to be there once because it costs x amount of dollars. It costs them too much. They don't want to send their Christmas gifts anymore because it costs too much. They will send a gift card in the mail. No, a parcel is better under the Christmas tree, kids. But we show them how to do it. We show them how to send internationally and save the price. They come back repeatedly to send more parcels, therefore generating a revenue.

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

Okay, I'll ask a quick one because I think I have one minute.

What sort of facilitation do you want for management and employees to sit together, exchange ideas, and build on them, because it looks like there's no cohesion. It looks like there is disparate interest.

Mr. Lambrecht.

[Alexander Lambrecht]

You're referring to the relationship between management and workers?

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

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I might ask you to keep it short.

[Alexander Lambrecht]

Yes, I can keep this short. Basically what you just described is classic business management, and my view on new world management is basically that it's not the people who work for you, it's the people you work with, and management has to be the one to create the environment in which they listen to their employees. They have to lead by example, take those recommendations from their employees, and move them up the ladder.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

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

You can then submit your views.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to our final two interventions, which will be five minutes each.

Mr. Clarke, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My thanks to the witnesses for being here with us this morning.

Since I was a child, Yellowknife has intrigued me. Unfortunately, we will not be here for a long time. I would have liked to jump in that beautiful lake here.

Mr. O'Reilly, do the people of the Northwest Territories see Canada Post as a symbol of national unity? Do they feel a sense of pride toward Canada Post?

[Kevin O'Reilly]

Thank you for the question.

I do think that is partly the case. In some of the small communities that I visited, one of the few federal offices is Canada Post, and it does represent a national service in a way that brings together Canadians so we can transact business, correspond, and so on. It is an important symbol and representation of the federal government in many of the smaller communities.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay.

My understanding is that there has never been home mail delivery here. Have you always had community mailboxes?

[Kevin O'Reilly]

No.

You have to go downtown to the post office to get your mail. There are no community mailboxes. Up until about the mid or late 1990s, you still had to go downtown to get your mail at the post office.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay.

Is there service five days a week in all communities that are accessible by air?

[Lynda Lefrancois]

It depends on when your flight is going to get there. It depends on the weather conditions. It depends on a whole bunch of things.

Basically, for the dispatch, the mail goes every day. I would say 30% goes to the communities every second day. It would also depend on the flight whether the mail gets bumped, because people, food, and so on are going to take priority over the mail.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I understand what you are saying. It makes sense.

Mr. Lambrecht, how many members does your federation have?

[Alexander Lambrecht]

In total there are just over 10,000, and that number fluctuates just because of the industries that our numbers work in.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

What is your employment rate right now?

[Alexander Lambrecht]

The employment rate numbers just came out in the Northwest Territories.

[Kevin O'Reilly]

The unemployment rate differs between Yellowknife and the communities. In Yellowknife it's quite low. It may be 5%. In some of the communities it can be as high as 30% or 40%.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Of course, I have questions for the Mayor of Yellowknife, but I will still ask you questions as a member of the Legislative Assembly, Mr. O'Reilly.

Do you know whether the municipalities were consulted by Canada Post before the changes in 2013? Given that there are no community mailboxes, perhaps you have not experienced any changes.

[Kevin O'Reilly]

I don't think I could speak on behalf of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities. I believe you have Sara Brown on the next panel.

It's difficult to engage rural Canadians, and particularly the ones in the north, because of some of the poor communications and transportation issues that we've all discussed here.